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naturegirl321
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Home sweet home
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 Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:49 am Post subject: Student Surveys at Universities? |
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I've been told that renewing my contract is largely dependant on student surveys. I've had student surveys in the past, but Peruvian students are very different than Korean ones.
Any ways to get good marks on the survey? |
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ponyo
Joined: 27 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:07 am Post subject: |
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| so this is an end-of-the semester anonymous evaluation? is it mandatory? also, what type of courses are you teaching? are courses electives, compulsory, or a mix? unfortunately, i find that getting on the students good side (i.e. not killing them with homework or busting their nuts in general) works well with the compulsory, freshman-english type, course. in elective courses you might get students who actually who care about what they get from the course. either way, making personal connections with your students will benefit you, in my experience. |
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naturegirl321
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Home sweet home
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| Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:15 am Post subject: |
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Yep, end of the semester, mandatory. It'll be composition and presentation courses. Cumpulsory.
Thanks for the tips about work and homework. |
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Sadebugo1
Joined: 11 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:29 am Post subject: Re: Student Surveys at Universities? |
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| naturegirl321 wrote: |
I've been told that renewing my contract is largely dependant on student surveys. I've had student surveys in the past, but Peruvian students are very different than Korean ones.
Any ways to get good marks on the survey? |
I don't think Korean students are uniquely difficult to please. If you're considered to be a solid instructor in one place, it will transfer over to Korea. I had surveys at my university and did very well I'm happy to say, but I don't ever remember being told my job depended on them. I would think they would have to be quite low to provoke a firing. Anyway, put forth a positive attitude and demonstrate that you care and that should be enough.
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/ |
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Chaucer
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:21 pm Post subject: Grade inflation |
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| Solid instructor is fine, as is building rapport, teaching to student needs, but Korean universities are now A+ factories, and giving lower grades can be disastrous for you. Given, the students will not know their grades when they do the evaluations, but if you show concern for grade inflation and even go over student grades beforehand, you'll do better on evals. Terrible, cynical thing to say, I know; it's the same in the US now (go to one of those "rate my professors" sites and you'll see the category "easiness" is a principal one). But if you want to stay your three years, or whatever the limit is, it's best to take heed. My office mate was not renewed after one year due to low evals. |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:25 pm Post subject: Re: Grade inflation |
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| Chaucer wrote: |
| Solid instructor is fine, as is building rapport, teaching to student needs, but Korean universities are now A+ factories, and giving lower grades can be disastrous for you. Given, the students will not know their grades when they do the evaluations, but if you show concern for grade inflation and even go over student grades beforehand, you'll do better on evals. Terrible, cynical thing to say, I know; it's the same in the US now (go to one of those "rate my professors" sites and you'll see the category "easiness" is a principal one). But if you want to stay your three years, or whatever the limit is, it's best to take heed. My office mate was not renewed after one year due to low evals. |
How many universities are like yours?
At the university I work at we have to grade on a curve, so you couldn't give out A+s to everyone even if you wanted. We can give As to a maximum of 15% of the students in a class.
Furthermore students evaluate the professors BEFORE they can see their grade at my uni.
To the OP: When you are evaluated your students generally answer a series of questions and give you a score. Since I know what the questions are I can preempt negative scoring. Actually just by being a decent and conscientious instructor your score should be decent.
At my uni the questions are things such as "Does the instructor come to class on time?", "Did the instructor explain what the class was about?", "Did the instructor follow the syllabus?", "Did the instructor mark homeworks in a timely manner?" etc. It's stuff which most conscientious instructors will naturally do well on. I generally get about 4.8 to 4.9 out of a maximum of 5. This puts me in the 17-25th percentile (out of all professors and instructors at the uni, not just foreigners). So a quarter of profs are presumably getting almost a perfect score haha.
You will probably get a decent evaluation unless you are crazy or lazy. A lot of foreigners here fall into one or both of these categories, but judging from your posts I doubt you do =) Your evaluations will probably be fine. |
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ytuque
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
Location: I drink therefore I am!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:40 pm Post subject: Re: Student Surveys at Universities? |
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| Sadebugo1 wrote: |
| naturegirl321 wrote: |
I've been told that renewing my contract is largely dependant on student surveys. I've had student surveys in the past, but Peruvian students are very different than Korean ones.
Any ways to get good marks on the survey? |
I don't think Korean students are uniquely difficult to please. If you're considered to be a solid instructor in one place, it will transfer over to Korea. I had surveys at my university and did very well I'm happy to say, but I don't ever remember being told my job depended on them. I would think they would have to be quite low to provoke a firing. Anyway, put forth a positive attitude and demonstrate that you care and that should be enough.
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/ |
If you are considered to be a solid instructor by students from one culture, it does not necessarily imply that students from another culture will find you equally as competent. |
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FistFace
Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Location: Peekaboo! I can see you! And I know what you do!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Another poster here and I work at the same institution, and he may have mentioned this. It used to be that teachers at our university could see the student evals come in as they made them (during the "grade challenge period"). The some students complained that they were afraid to give negative reviews of their professors because it could lead to a lower grade. The school scoffed, but many students complained that their grade was lowered after they turned in their reviews. Our school did a study, and it turned out to be true! Some Korean professors were indeed lowering the grades of the entire class if there were too many bad reviews. Since that time, professors aren't allowed to see reviews until after the final grade change day. |
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Sadebugo1
Joined: 11 May 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:26 am Post subject: Re: Student Surveys at Universities? |
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| ytuque wrote: |
| Sadebugo1 wrote: |
| naturegirl321 wrote: |
I've been told that renewing my contract is largely dependant on student surveys. I've had student surveys in the past, but Peruvian students are very different than Korean ones.
Any ways to get good marks on the survey? |
I don't think Korean students are uniquely difficult to please. If you're considered to be a solid instructor in one place, it will transfer over to Korea. I had surveys at my university and did very well I'm happy to say, but I don't ever remember being told my job depended on them. I would think they would have to be quite low to provoke a firing. Anyway, put forth a positive attitude and demonstrate that you care and that should be enough.
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/ |
If you are considered to be a solid instructor by students from one culture, it does not necessarily imply that students from another culture will find you equally as competent. |
You're right, but I don't think it would go from one extreme to the other. Using my own situation as a guide. I have done very well in cultures as diverse as Korean, Saudi, and Thai. In my current job, just last week, I had nine students from the following nine different countries: Finland, Czech Republic, Japan, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Chile, Guatemala, and Kenya. The class went very well and all gave me positive feedback. No doubt, an 'entertainer' in North Asia will not be as successful in Eastern Europe, but a well-rounded instructor in one culture should not become a terrible one in another, IMHO.
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/ |
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