This is nonsense! A bad implementation of a good idea does not make that idea bad.
When I was in university, we rated our instructors and we planned our own exams. We had a big say in what our curriculum was to be and how it should be taught. Not to be bragging, I was in one of the most difficult engineering programs in NA. The faculty's position was along the lines of: "We take in less than 2% of applicants, so if the kids aren't doing well, then we must be doing something wrong."
But that didn't mean that they just gave grades away. Every week we had one hour of special class where we met with the equivalent of homeroom teacher with whom we'd never have a course. He (we don't have many female engineering profs) would ask us specific questions about each course we were taking and how it was coming along. The discussions were always around how relevant the material was and what the instructor could do to make it better. In one occasion he discovered that many people lacked sufficient mathematical background for the electronics course that was being taught. So rather than dumbing it down, they university held 2 hours of extra math instructions specifically related to the circuits course we were taking. In another case the problem was that the course was too theoretical but we lacked the means (and knowledge) to do a hands-on version of it. So they added in a paper model of the computer for which we designed various CPU and components. The final exam had questions like, "For a hypothetical CPU similar to the one we worked on during the semester, create an instruction set that does..."
In short, the university took responsibility for quick and early course correction. Furthermore, they understood that each student and in fact each class may significantly vary from one year to the next. They worked on improving the communication styles of the instructors. In the process, the students also learned about the constraints that the instructors and the university were under. We appreciated the respect they had given us and acted accordingly.
When we were not discussing our progress, we were presented with the latest and most exciting areas related to our courses, either by guest speakers or through research videos.
So no, you cannot just ask a bunch of freshmen what they think of their teachers, because they lack the context and the experience to provide meaningful feedback. But you can have weekly sessions where the issues are *discussed* and corrected before it is too late. Then, and only then, the term end ratings become meaningful because the students have had a full term to evaluate and see how responsive the instructor really was to their needs within the constraints that he had to operate. |
