Hi
On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, Richard Pisacreta wrote:
> Jim wrote:
> Why wouldn't undergraduates sitting in a class for a
> >semester or a year be able to evaluate whether the prof is
> >organized, interesting, available for students, and the like?
>
> In my opinion, a college freshman can only compare you to the high school
> teachers that they have had. High school is a lot different than college.
> "Interesting" often means a "fun" class, at least around here.
But, as I mentioned, ratings from undergraduates do correlate
highly with ratings of trained observers who are graduate
students (cf., the studies by Harry Murray). Still, I agree with
Richard that caution is needed in the use of evaluations,
especially their administrative use. But I also think that
University Teaching is one area where we can show our own
acceptance of science as a foundation for practice and where we
can try to develop ways to address some of the challenges
involved in translating theory into practice.
Best wishes
Jim
============================================================================
James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
============================================================================
