Higher Education Observer

Perhaps no practice in higher education pushes veteran faculty to cynicism and younger faculty to frustration more than SET—student evaluation of teaching. If you have ever received SETs that left you angry, scratching your head, or laughing at the irony of it all; if you have ever wished there were other ways to evaluate your teaching; if you have ever wondered about the reliability and validity of the SET process, you are not alone. Although over thirty journal articles went into the preparation of this essay, that number represents only about 1% of all that have been published on the subject. According to Al-Isa & Suleiman (2007), 2988 journal articles on SET in higher education appeared in professional journals from 1990 to 2005. Furthermore, the ones published 30 years ago address the same concerns as the ones written in the last few years. As many of the articles echoed, faculty members routinely question the practice of SET. Until I came to DSC, my experience with SET a...

I was praying today for the other Christian faculty members on my campus. Not that I don't pray for the nonChristians--I do--but I pray that the Christians would be strong and winsome and wise. The ones I know are nice people and good colleagues and, while perhaps not the coolest people on campus, have good reputations. I would hope for more than just a good reputation, though, but spiritual influence. Being a Christian on a secular campus means conflict in a couple of areas. Sometimes it's in terms of politics, but it shouldn't be. I really try to keep my conservatism under raps because I don't want it confused with my faith. While there are connections between the two, I don't have a "what would Jesus do" view of how I vote. Perhaps I should, but I don't, at least not totally. I don't know how Jesus would vote on health care reform. I suspect He would prefer a fiscally solvent government system, no way for irresponsible women to kill the...

I work at a relatively small college that has grown rather quickly in the last few years with the addition of four-year programs and the influx of unemployed mill workers (the bulk of whom probably won't stick around when the mill reopen--sorry for the cynicism, but we have many students who sign up just to get the initial Pell check and then stop coming. They of course ruin their chances of ever getting any more scholarship money, but they waste a chunk of my taxes in the process, thank you very much.) Because of the size of the college, we have the opportunity to speak and socialize and collaborate across disciplines. It's a service-oriented college, so we often work on committees, in the Advising Center, that kind of thing. So, the historians can work with the nursing faculty who can work with the computer science faculty. It's quite nice. I am working on a project with a Social Work faculty member, for example. I would not like to work in a college where I could onl...

My conference went great, thanks to the wonderful teachers at Dalton State College who presented. The PowerPoints will be available at http://www.daltonstate.edu/teachinglearning/resources.htm by March 25.

If anyone reads this, come to Dalton State College, the Brown Center, firs floor, Friday morning, March 19, at 8:30. It's a conference on college teaching and learning. I'm very pleased. It will be awesome.

Over the weekend I read P.M. Forni's two books on Civility. They are book club selections for the Teaching and Learning Center I am in charge of (but not for much longer). They were chosen because teachers were interested, or concerned, about student incivility and many colleges are reading them. Not too many of our faculty are reading them, but I have to read all the selections to lead the discussions. I learned a few things, and can say I'm not sorry I took the time to read the books. But they are the kind of book that will have an impact on you if you have an open mind. He's not heavy handed, actually he's rather winsome, although a little preachy at times. We can't remember all the rules, but we can remember the basic principles of attention, awareness, and respect, among others. I am not sure why someone would want to follow his advice, though. His motivation is that if everyone did, society would be more, well, civilized. And there may be some truth t...

I have been on spring break (kind of early--the rest of the universe is starting theirs now or next week) but tomorrow must go back to the real world of 5:30 a.m alarm clock ringing. At least I don't have to drive in the dark now. I made the mistake (well, I was trying to be gracious and give them more time, but it meant more work for me) of having my students who needed extra time send in their outlines half-way through the week. I didn't get a good response--only about half got them in on time. On top of that, it had to be submitted to turnitin.com. One student flagged 82%. I wrote her a pretty scathing email. I wanted to say, "Do I have stupid written on my forehead," but instead made it about her, and that I could have her taken up before the disciplinary committee and fail the class or worse. I wanted to put them fear in them. Most had less than 15%, which I don't worry about. What's your opinion of turnitin? I don't like it, but is it a nec...

Am I the only person who teaches who sees all of life as fodder for the classroom? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The bad part of it is that as I get older and still have to teach to pay the bills (because people my age will not get Social Security til they are ninety, well, I'm kidding, maybe 70 or 72)--what a detour, anyway, as I get older my personal examples from life or movies may grow more and more irrelevant and doddering. I already have grieved over the death of my sense of humor. I thought I had one, but alas, my students don't think so. (Again, kidding a little, but they just don't get my jokes, they don't watch the TV shows I do, they don't go to the movies I do--I refuse to watch Twilight just because.....I feel so old!) The other bad part is that even if my humor and references were hip, that doesn't mean they really add anything to the task at hand, that is, learning the class concepts, instead of being a pleasant distraction and heaven ...

The governor of Georgia has stepped in and told the legislators to quit fearmongering about massive budget cuts and 35% tuition. Thank goodness. Maybe we will get some soundness in this debate. The issue of faculty members on facebook has come up again at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/02/facebook Again, why I don't want students on my facebook page, but this story goes deeper into issues of privacy, professionalism, and public speech of faculty members. I have two blogs to publish my own thoughts and sometimes they are not "politically correct," and some of my colleagues and students wouldn't like, but there's a line you don't cross on the Internet. That line is talking about your students in a public forum. In my book, you don't talk to students about other students or about colleagues, no matter how much they might try to bait you into it ("Professor X is not fair because ....."). And you also don't talk about students wh...

However, this entry, although also posted to my other blog, was too priceless, and it's very related to college teaching. From a student. This is why I shouldn't let students on my Facebook page. so this weekend,I was in D'iberville mississippi in Target. I was walkin to the bathroom when i received a call from NAMED FRIEND. As I walked in the restroom I finished my call and hung up the phone. Took a REDICULOUS dump, Then I got up to was my hands realizing a young attractive lady was standing beside me. t...urn around 2 find NO urinals on the wall.thanks Bro for "just wanting to talk" This tops the one I got a few weeks ago from a former co-church member who was fussing and whining about people posting about their kids' vomit. And this from a woman who posted a picture of her husband's butt crack. Do you let students on your facebook page? Why or why not? Do you have a separate page for them as friends versus others? I figure I am available th...

The big hot topic in college teaching and learning is classroom incivility. That's an unfortunate choice of words, as I have been quoted in a video as saying, because I think "incivility" assumes intent and a great deal of stupid behavior called incivility is plain cluelessness. I prefer to call it unproductive behavior and assume most of if comes from lack of skill and knowledge of the academic culture, or from lack of ability to deal with the stressors of college life. I truly believe that. I also truly believe some of it is a power play and intentional. The challenge is for college instructors (not those elitists, teach-one-class-a-semester types who produce research nobody reads, but real instructors and assistant and associate professors) to be able to slow down, proactively think it through, and respond based on a judgment of whether the behavior is stress-related (often the case at my college), cluelessness (more and more common because young people are not bei...

As part of my (almost former) job as TLC Coordinator, I have led a number of book discussions. We have read over the past three years: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do Huba and Freed, Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress Gabe Lyon, UnChristian Rebekah Nathan, My Freshman Year MaryEllen Weimer, Learner-Centered Teaching Dee Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences Jean Twenge, Generation Me Kathleen Gabriel, Teaching Unprepared Students P. M. Forni, Civility books John Bean, Engaging Ideas Rebecca Cox, The College Fear Factor We read two other books that were only tangentially related to teaching and learning. Would I recommend some of these books over others? Yes. bell hooks is interesting but unpractical. Generation Me is depressing. The College Fear Factor, Teaching Unprepared Students , and some of the learning-centered books are practical for those who teach in open-access. Bain's book is one of the best but...