"The idea of student evaluations as an assessment tool to help instructors figure out how well they are teaching has become a hot topic on most campuses," relates Terry Favero, an assistant professor of biology who teaches human anatomy at the University of Portland in Oregon. Fueling the fire is a trend to use evaluations in promotion and tenure decisions--a purpose that such assessments were not intended to have, instructors maintain. Two recent studies reveal limitations of student evaluations in fairly reflecting teaching ability.
The conventional wisdom is that only smaller schools care about student course evaluations. In actuality, however, they are considered important by junior colleges, private four-year schools, state universities, the Ivy League, and top research institutions alike. At Harvard University, for example, "the biology department as a whole uses them, plus they are integral in the 20 seminar courses the department offers," says Barbara Cerva, coordinator of ...
