Student Experiences: Good and Bad

In preparation for the standard annual review, I’m re-reading student evaluations from my classes the previous calendar year. The new Student Evaluation of Educational Experience (SEEE) form, implemented this past fall semester, has more focused open-ended questions that also require the students to be more reflective.

·      What about this instructor/course was most beneficial for your learning?

·      What about this instructor/course could be improved to better your learning?

·      What advice would you give to another student who is considering taking this course?

I previously blogged about the advice question after reading the evaluations. I’m putting those comments on my course web sites this semester. I’m hoping it will help students get off to a better start!

In today’s post, I will be sharing some student open-ended comments. But I’m not going to be sharing them from the most recent semester because I taught two smaller classes and therefore the comments were particularly positive, and perhaps not reflective of the student population and experience at large in a chemistry course.

Instead I will be sharing from the previous spring semester when the old ‘teaching evaluation’ forms were being used for the last time. For the open-ended section, these old forms had the rather nebulous instruction “Make general specific comments about the instructor and the course.” What does the oxymoronic “general specific” even mean? As you can imagine, student comments are all over the place.

I’ve chosen a representative sample from my larger (non-Honors) sections of (second-semester) General Chemistry II. This selection includes some of the best and worst comments from that semester. They aren’t the superlatively best or worst comments I’ve had over a lifetime, but they do a decent job highlighting the student experience. It’s important to emphasize that student comments (positive or negative) don’t necessarily reflect whether I’m a capable and effective teacher if such a thing could be truly measured in any objective sense. Student comments are but one facet, but nevertheless an important one. Students are with you throughout the entire semester (as opposed to a drop-in observing colleague). Whether or not I agree with the substance of the student comments, they still have a perspective that I should take into account, for better or worse.

The comments in italics have only had very minor editions for punctuation and spelling. I’ve also removed identifying information and changed my name to HH (for Hufflepuff Hippo). My comments on their comments are interspersed.

·      Dr. HH is by far the most organized and put-together teacher I have ever had. He is made to only teach students that want to work hard. Warning: all the mean evaluations were done by lazy students! Dr. HH expects a lot of us and I loved that. Not easy by any means and so willing to help. Thanks for letting me come to every office hours! He serves as an example to other teachers! Give this genius man a raise please because he works so hard!

That was one of the most positive comments, but it highlights an interesting point. I’m supposedly good at teaching hardworking students, but it might also mean I’m only good at teaching ‘good’ students, and not so good with ‘not-so-good’ students. To put that in perspective, here’s one from a student who felt ill at ease with the pace.

·      Professor HH teaches extremely fast and does not slow down. It is very hard to keep up in class, and even in office hours. His exams are also extremely difficult. The homework and practice exams are nothing like the actual exam and it did not prepare me at all. I put so much hard work and effort into this class yet I still feel like it is not enough and that I will fail.

My class is clearly challenging. I’d say chemistry is inherently challenging. It does not come naturally to most of us. Me included, when I first started. You’ve got to work at it. (Also, my practice exams are from the previous year, and the exams have similar difficulty. However, some students will perceive them as more difficult. More on that later.)

·      Very difficult course and very demanding workload, but the instructor did an excellent job of teaching it and showed vast knowledge of the subject. Workload was necessary to understand the material.

·      Dr. HH was helpful in office hours but he is a very tough teacher. Last semester my teacher was willing to help students that did not really understand chemistry. I feel like I should have received more aid. I studied a lot.

I’m also apparently a ‘tough’ instructor and maybe not as helpful to all types of students. But at least the student above found me helpful in office hours. Others didn’t.

·      HH is very intellectual in his understanding of chemistry, however in his office hours, I often felt ridiculed for my inability to understand the material. The level of knowledge expected was way above an entry-level chemistry.

·      HH goes very fast in his lectures, but it is generally understandable. Sometimes during office hours, I would get responses like “Read the book” which I find to be generally unhelpful especially if I don’t understand something, an explanation would be nice. Overall I like this course and would recommend.

Honestly, I don’t think I ever ridicule a student – but that’s my perspective. I am however known to be very direct when I’m trying to help a student. If the student comes unprepared to office hours and hasn’t put in some amount of work beforehand, I refuse to spoon-feed. I suppose that makes me tough and lacking in empathy, both of which might well be true. I’m not the nicest person around, although I’d like to think I’m generally well-mannered. I do have high expectations and I do go at a fast pace to keep students on-their-toes and (hopefully) learning, consistent with Vygotsky’s zone-of-proximal development. The student however felt ridiculed from his or her perspective, and I acknowledge this even if it was not my intention.

Here’s one more about my speed from a student anticipating a C grade before the final exam. I do get a fair share of positive comments from students who aren’t doing great in the class.

·      Best chem professor I’ve had, explanations are deep and thorough, he just explains things really fast.

Besides my fast pace (which comes up in many comments I haven’t shared), the other common thing students remark on is that I’m organized in class, and knowledgeable about my field.

·      Dr. HH is the most organized and efficient professor I’ve ever had. He never falls behind in his lectures and is always willing to help his students.

·      Dr. HH knows much about his field. He was very organized and prepared for each class. However I think tests were unfair in that it is only out of 25 points.

Being knowledgeable or ‘intellectual’ (from a previous comment) can also be a negative when it is combined with a ‘but’.

·      Dr. HH is very knowledgeable about chemistry, but he’s not very good at clearly explaining concepts. When I read the book I find it to not make sense even with his lectures. He also does not give enough examples outside of class.

And here’s a contrasting comment that says the exact opposite.

·      Dr. HH is an amazing professor. He explains topics in class very well and gives plenty of examples. The exams are difficult, but everything can be found from the class notes and his explanations in lecture follows the material in lab.

Students think my exams are difficult. (It would be a problem if they found them easy.) Yet the strong students still do very well and my grade distribution looks pretty normal. They are also not inflated. (The mean and median in G-Chem 2 is usually a C+ and occasionally a B-.) I do provide previous year exams (of similar difficulty) to the students for practice – but (shockingly) many students don’t take advantage of them. I tell students how to take a practice exam (i.e., under exam conditions) – many students don’t follow this and thus perceive the past-year exam to be easier because they have their notes close by for reference. At least one student thought my exams were impossible.

·      His tests are impossible. I’ve never tried so hard in a class before. He does not have much empathy and always kicks me out during office hours. His tests are way harder than what’s taught in class.

That being said, if a student comes close to the end of office hours, I usually let it run over and answer any direct questions a student has. However, I don’t allow students to ‘work in my office’ beyond office hours if they don’t have immediate questions. I’ve never kicked out a student during scheduled office hours. The student however perceives being kicked out of office hours. (Most students are very respectful of my time so this is not a common that I face.)

Some of my G-Chem 1 students follow me into G-Chem 2, and those almost always have positive comments. This is not surprising since a student who didn’t like having me as an instructor the first semester would avoid me for the second semester. We teach multiple sections so students can pick and choose.

·      I think this course flows very well with G-Chem 1. Dr. HH was my professor for both courses and I felt more prepared this semester. Dr. HH is always willing to host office hours and is very helpful whenever I have questions. I liked this course and that is solely because of Dr. HH.

·      Dr. HH is very good at teaching gen chem. I’ve had him for 2 semesters and I feel that he is extremely clear with his teaching. He provides many opportunities for help and knows a lot about chemistry. He teaches in a way that really helps you visualize and understand how and why chemistry works.

I liked that these two students highlighted things that I consciously try to do. I constantly make reference to what students have learned in G-Chem 1 and make connections. I also talk constantly about models and how they help illuminate chemistry (although they have limitations). Yes, the student actually underlined how and why in the comment above for emphasis.

Having taught for many years, there isn’t much that’s new in the evaluations that I haven’t heard before. Similar comments show up every year, and the above is a pretty good representative sample from G-Chem. (Comments from other classes have their own representative sets.) It will be interesting to see if the new forms that encourage more student reflection will provide varying perspectives. (I’m biased because I helped to design the new forms.) We’ll see!

P.S. My institution seems to have this culture where most students address their professors with the “Dr” honorific. I neither encourage nor discourage this.