[ neoblogical ]

Well, I just got back my student evaluations from Fall 2007. Overall, I was near, at, or above the course, department, and university medians, except in the areas of grade feedback, class time use, and organization/preparation. I failed pretty dismally in those areas. I expected to not do well on those. I only learned I’d be full-time a few days before the beginning of the semester, and was forced to use books ordered without my input, thus having to do two nearly from scratch course preparations. Then, my wife and I both had health challenges, and a disastrous move from Smyrna to Dawsonville to be closer to the University. So all in all, I was expecting some negatives as I played catchup all semester.

But even given all that, I was not expecting some of the negative comments I got. One actually said “This course was horrible,” and a “complete waste of my money.” I also got some comments that said, “Mr. A is the best professor I’ve ever had.” (Of course, these are freshmen.) So I’m wondering, is it normal for the negative people to be more willing to actually write comments than the positive people? Or is this an indication I really did worse than I thought? Should I take a “They either love me or hate me” approach, or work to improve things for those who didn’t like me? And would this make those who would have like me become my new detractors? Or, maybe my problem is a failure to manage expectations better from the beginning of the semester?

So far, I am trying to do a little of all of the above. Overall, I am going to take a concept from my years in quality control in the business world and use this feedback to chart my course towards “continuous improvement.” I’m also going to remind myself that I’m only in my third semester of stand-alone teaching, and I still have a lot to learn. Things can and should only get better, and feedback like this will help that process.