Higher Education Observer

Good article for discussion: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/02/09/teaching-evaluations-are-often-used-confirm-worst-stereotypes-about-women-faculty?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8d9385c100-DNU20180111&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8d9385c100-198482621&mc_cid=8d9385c100&mc_eid=ab27a3f05f As usual, the comments are as good as the article. My position is that SETs should have objective questions about teaching behavior and minimize opportunities for students to comment on anything extraneous (like looks or tastes in clothes); should be used as formative assessment primarily (instructor can address concerns in annual evaluations and be expected to improve in specific areas); should never be used as primary evidence in tenure and promotion unless clearly problematic. In the last, if using a 5-point scale and the instructor never gets above 4, that is problematic.  But if an instructor routinely gets 4.3 and the mean  for the institut

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/09/instructor-suspended-using-n-word-class?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=8d9385c100-DNU20180111&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-8d9385c100-198482621&mc_cid=8d9385c100&mc_eid=ab27a3f05f Link here is to article about an instructor uttering the "n" word in class because he lets students bring songs to class to play and they sing along and this song had the racial slur.  He is being disciplined. 1.  I would question the policy of letting them bring songs to class to play in the first place.  Is that of value to the class, or just pandering to the students? 2.  An instructor must maintain control in a class.  The students shouldn't be allowed to play songs with objectionable material. 3.  The instructor should not sing along. 4.  As to the word, well, I'm not going there.  I made the error of using that word in my first novel as an example of racism, said by a black person who was maki