Feedback from GRDSCH 630 Students, Winter 2004

At the end of the quarter we asked students for their feedback on the course. Students provided numerical student ratings and also responded to open-ended feedback questions.

• Numerical Ratings
• Open-ended Feedback Questions
• Who takes this class?
• Feedback from Other Quarters

Numerical Student Ratings

We asked students to rate, on a scale of zero (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree), whether the course helped them in five specific areas. We also asked them to rate the value of the course as a whole. Here are students' ratings of the course in those areas:

How to more effectively help students learn

How to respond to the diverse backgrounds, interests, and abilities of students

Relevant resources for improving teaching and learning

What to do next to continue developing as a teacher

Open-ended Feedback

We also asked students a series of open-ended feedback questions. Here are examples of students' answers, and our responses to their feedback:

1. What parts of the class should we keep?
2. What parts of the class should we change?
3. Other comments

Question 1: What parts of the class should we keep?

Assignments:

• The workload was very well-balanced - not too demanding but always something signifigant to reflect on. The range of assignments was also very practical and helpful.
• The level of work in the assignments is appropriate - enough work to make us seriously give some thought to teaching preparation,but not so much work so as to be a frustrating diversion from core responsibilities.Also, the flexibility in projects helps to keep work relevant. Keep the overall assignment structure.
• The assignments were pertinent and were good.
• I liked the development of the teaching philosophy statement. It might be helpful to make this a 2-quarter class; we're in the second quarter, we can apply what we learned. Ten classes was just too short!
• Teaching Philosophy development. Resources for improving teaching and learning. Group discussions - very helpful.
• Writing philosophy early in the course. Group work. Talking as a class about more difficult topics, e.g.: diversity.
• Writing the statement and getting a first start on the portfolio was very worthwhile.
• Portfolio. Teaching philosophy, etc. I like the weekly e-mail; I print it an duse it as a check in to make sure I am on track with class assignments.

Activities and Materials

• Group work and group discussion, peer advice is very useful and rewarding. Time the course is offered.
• I really enjoyed sessions on diverse teaching, thinking beyond lecture, sharing w/ other students, talking about applying for jobs, getting ideas from other students.
• The hand outs and examples were really great. The class structure - informal, encouraging discussion, non-judgemental was also very helpful and usually conducive to interesting comments and insights. The free textbook was a nice touch! I also liked the combined teaching - noth instructors work well together to bring in differing, but united, points of view.
• The "lost" McKeachie chapter about writing the syllabus, planning activities in and out or class; focus on teaching portfolio - peer feedback and reading others' portfolio was very helpful!
• The CIDR Web site in invaluable. The practical application to life ahead and helped me to get organized and prepare for the future.

General

• Everything.
• I liked everything that was addressed - especially the day on active learning.
• Everything.

Question 2: What parts of the class should we change?

Changes to Assignments

• I didn't get as much out of doing the teaching brief, my own or hearing about others'. I would have preferred looking at more portfolios.
• I think I would enjoy one 1/2 session on CV development from teaching perspective. Maybe have writing session only after three sessions. (Key points in quarter.)
• Make your goals for each assignment more clear beforehand (e.g.: What do you want in the portfolio? I really wasn't sure until I received the e-mail from Wayne - stating objectives on Web page so we can start earlier.)
• If you are going to give 2 credits, you might raise expectations a bit.

Changes to Topics Addressed

• Talk more about howto help students learn more effectively, not concentrate mainly on Teaching Portfolio.
• More on development as a teacher. More information on annotating before final draft of philosophy statement due.
• I would structure into the course one more iteration of the teaching philosophy stuff. Perhaps the second iteration could be a draft of philosophy - methods connction.

Changes to Activities

• Break up class into small group w/ same or similar disciplines and have a discussion about teaching strategies used/could be used in that area. The humanities and sciences have both converge in some approaches, but diverge in other approaches.
• Small group discussions were more helpful, on average, than large group presentations of projects, though summing up was helpful.
• I'm not sure the time writing at the end of classes helped me much. I think that ideas or thoughts I had I would either retain or notate my own way. I think I benefited from continued discussion more than the writing.

No changes to suggest

• Nothing to think of.
• Nothing comes to mind. It was really great.

Changes to Materials

• A lot of the readings and discussions were common sense. We spent too much time talking about abstract philosophy of teaching. Perhaps more theoretical or applicable teaching principles. Like, what is active learning? Why was it developed? Who devised the theory of PBL? Maybe some educational articles which described theories or summariize learning techniques.
• McKeachie was a good text, but often common sense. I would be interested in more in-depth coverage about the topics the text covered.
• I'm not convinced McKeachie should berequired. Perhaps it could be includedin an optional fashon.

Question 3: Other comments about the class

I enjoyed the class very much. I know where to look for more info. I didn't put as much effort into it as I would have liked, had time been available.

Thank you very much. Overall, it was a good course!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks! Great class. I will be in CIDR in the near future for more guidance!

Wayne and Debby made the classroom very supportive. I really valued their contribution. They did a good job of encouraging discussion. I really enjoyed having students from different areas. It really broadened the experience.

Overall a very helpful course. I am glad I took it and I would recommend it to others.

Great class. I recommend to anyone teaching or considering teaching.Maybe have a course for those just starting teaching.

Spending some time on CV development would be very helpful. Thank you for providing this course - it has been extremely valuable to me, plus I loved meeting students from other disciplines

This class really helped me get a lot more out of my teaching - and helped me be a better teacher to my students as well!

I often felt that I had been tricked into working - in that I didn't realize I was working - it was fun to apply concepts in class to the class I was teaching. I grew a tremendous amount as an educator based on the ideas we explored.

Giving a clearer idea of how students without teaching experience can benefit from these exercizes andcontribute to these projects would be helpful.

Thank you very much!

Add a class list with name, department, year, e-mail, etc.

 

Departments Represented in the Course

Here is a list of departments represented in GRDSCH 630 during Winter 2004:

• Anthropology
• Art History
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Bioengineering
• Biology Teaching
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Education
• Electrical Engineering
• English
• Genome Sciences
• Health Services
• Law
• Math
• Nursing
• Slavic Languages and Literature
• Speech & Hearing Sciences
• Urban Design & Planning

206.543.6588 (phone)
206.685.1213 (fax)
email: cidr@u.washington.edu
web: http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/