• 12 different courses (2 were co-taught)
• about 200 classes
• over 20,000 students
• at 3 different institutions
In a typical academic year, I teach seven classes, and about 1,000 students.
I have been fortunate to have been given awards for my teaching, including:
• Instructor of the month (Faculty of Science)
• Kathleen W. Klawe Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Large Classes
• Instructors of Distinction Honour Roll, Faculty of Science
• Instructor Appreciation award from the Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society
• Teacher Excellence Award from Delta Chi fraternity
• Department of Psychology Teaching Award
In addition, based on USRIs, I have been placed on the Department of Psychology Teaching Honour Roll 20 times, and the Honour Roll with Distinction 144 times.
As I reflect on all of these numbers and awards, I wonder what they all mean. Am I bragging about them? (No. Seriously.) Am I a good teacher? Students often give feedback that they enjoyed my course, which is all well and good. But did I teach the material effectively? That is, did I do something to help students learn the material well? And to what do I compare these outcomes--to myself 25 years ago, or to other instructors now? There’s no way to know. So I went to the research literature (you probably saw that coming, eh?).
A study by O’Connor and Cheema (2018) found that when a course was offered several times, grades given by the same instructor increased (from about a B+ to an A-). That sounds good, but this finding can be explained a number of ways. Is it because instructors get better over time, leading to better student performance? No: much research (e.g., Marsh, 2007) shows that teaching effectiveness tends to decline with age and years of experience--unless there is “systematic intervention”. Maybe it’s because students are getting better, year over year? Nope again: no significant effects were found on GPA as a factor of calendar year.
So what is responsible? The authors could not say for sure, but suggested that with increasing experience, the decision-making process “contaminates” evaluations--and seems to contaminate them in the upwards direction.
Well, that sucks.
Of course, I’d like to think that I’m the exception to the rule--that I don’t give higher marks now just because I’m older and have all this experience. I’d like to think that all the time and effort that I’ve put into my courses over the years has not been for nothing. But what can I do? Well, there is that “systematic intervention” business. The research on that indicates that using student evaluations of teaching along with consultation actually improve teaching effectiveness. The consultation is based on the ratings, and is used to target specific areas for development and selected strategies for improvement.
So, at this point in my 25-year-long career, it’s not time to sit back. It’s time once again to roll up my sleeves and dive in to some hard work.
Why aren’t you studying?
References
Marsh, H. W. (2007). Do university teachers become more effective with experience? A multilevel growth model of students’ evaluations of teaching over 13 years. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 775-790. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.4.775
O’Connor, K., & Cheema, A. (2018). Do evaluations rise with experience? Psychological Science, 29, 779-790. doi:10.1177/0956797617744517
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