Thank you to everyone for your comments on midterm evaluations - I ended up using a relatively general form, with some specific prompts. The class in which I administered them today seems quite satisified with how the semester is going, so that's a positive sign. I'm cautiously optimistic - only cautiously, because in previous semesters things have gone well through the midterm, but by the end of the semester students have - what, grown weary of the class? bored? tired of the same old same old? Still, they all seem comfortable with the class at the moment. And there were a few specific comments about minor changes that I should be able to implement reasonably easily.
A couple of things I thought were interesting: first, I lectured today for the first time in a little while. And there were a number of evals that said they liked the lectures. I'm just amused by the power of suggestion that seems to be at work here. Also, one of the things I asked them was why they took the class, and one option was "like prof." I had at least three people choose that, even though I've only had two of the students in class before. So I don't know what's up with that, but I'm amused by it regardless. (In a good way.)
On an unrelated note, I am coming down with LDH's cold. Bleah!
On the power of suggestion--yes, amazing. I also gave my mid semester evals yesterday, and it just so happened that they'd also turned in the first actually challenging homework of the year. So on the question about whether the homeworks were easy, just right, or challenging, many more of them said "challenging" than probably should have.
Posted by: ianqui | Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 08:21 AM
Maybe the third student heard from the other two that you were a good prof. Woo-hoo! There's buzz about New Kid!
Posted by: turtlebella | Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 08:29 AM
I'm glad your evals went well. And of course they liked the lecture -- students *want* to learn (some excepted, of course). And they want to learn from their professors (experts in the field), not the lacrosse player sitting by the window saying, "Yeah, but like... sources are like ... biased."
I know many think differently, but I feel we do our students a disservice by not lecturing enough!
Posted by: Boris | Friday, October 13, 2006 at 10:24 PM
Yeah, what Turtlebella said!
Hope the cold isn't bugging you too much...
Posted by: Jane Dark | Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 09:53 AM