Evaluating Teaching in Undergraduate Higher Education

[Eduardo Peirano]

The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education is a influential paper and a popular framework for evaluating teaching in Higher Education. Students should know what is considered as good practice from their professors in undergraduate education. What do you think? Are your professors following these Principles?

[LanaM]

I'm in grad school now, so the expectations are a little different. But it wasn't that long ago that I was an undergrad (I retired in May 2003, returned to school full time in Sept 2003, and graduated in June 2006).

I would say for the most part the professors I had as an undergrad followed the guidelines outlined in the referenced paper. I went to a smaller (~ 4000 students) private university for my undergrad degree, and I think the largest class I took had 70 students. Most of my non-major classes had maybe 20-25 students (classes required for graduation, but outside my major: courses like physics, biology, math, history, etc.), while the courses in my major usually had 15-20 students or fewer in some of the upper division classes. With class sizes that small, it was fairly easy for the professor to get to know each of us pretty well.

Also, we were assigned a faculty partner within the music department who served as an advisor for the duration of our time at this school, and that helped a lot. I've gone for 3 yrs, and I still hear from and send updates to Dr. Hansen.

I realize that encouraging teamwork is probably a good thing, but I HATED the team projects we were assigned in my science and math courses. Because I was older than everyone else, it was assumed I would be in charge, even when I stated I didn't want to be (I spent 32 yrs "in charge" of projects -- and these younger students need the experience more than I did). Even if there was someone else assigned as team leader, I ended up outlining the approach, setting the schedule, and, many times, doing the bulk of the work, simply because we had a due date and I wanted to get a decent grade. I was VERY careful to do most of this planning and scheduling with the team (rather than going off on my own) so they could at least see how one might approach a particular problem, talking it through so they could see the thought process involved. I hope it helped -- we always got A's on the projects I was involved in, so everyone seemed happy. Still, I would have liked to have taken more of a back-seat role.

Grad school is a totally different kettle of fish ...

[Steven Dulmes]

As a prof, those are great goals for anyone in a classroom. Although, remember that even though your prof has achieved some of the highest postion/goals someone can in a given field, they are still human, and make mistakes. Evaluate your classroom experience from an honest perspective; did you put in the time necessary to achieve? what is the overall classroom experience, not just a single class? did you know more leaving then when you walked in the door? All of these questions lead to the conclusion that the teacher has done his/her job, assuming the answers are yes. Profs can't make you learn, but they must lead the way.