Feedback from GRDSCH 630 Students, Winter 2005

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 the questions we asked, followed by students' responses:

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?

Portfolio Assignment:

• Teaching statement and tools review.
• Development of portfolios as end product.
• The portfolio preparation for sure.  I had no idea about this before, and step-by-sep help was beyond helpful.  Teaching methods - knowing more about how to teach helped me reevaluate my methods.
• Developing sections of portfolio.
• The development of a teaching portfolio and especially the philosophy statement was excellent, a huge step up for when I am looking for a job.
• Analysis of portfolio, teaching statements, teaching techniques, demonstrations.

Other Assignments:

• All of the assignments were really helpful to me.  I had no idea that teachers even have a portfolio, so it is great for me to have this class under my belt so I know what I should keep out of teaching material I'll have.
• The project worked out well, despite the fact that I did them in a short timeframe.
• The practical teaching projects and teaching briefs were very valuable - I learned a great deal from my peers and am thankful for the information gained.
• Teaching project.  In fact, I learned an amazing amount during my project.  I wonder if others got as much and think maybe some careful thought by students would make these more meaningful.
• Written assignments really helped to try to write out and work through issues in teaching and student learning.

Materials

• Good reading (on-line source, articles).  Both of you are great discussion facilitators.  (Thanks!)
• I really enjoyed the readings that we had -- they were all very thought provoking and applicable to my teaching.  I now have a lot of resources to revert back to.  They have definitely piqued my interest!

Fellow Students

• I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the other students in small groups - it makes the material relevant.
• An aspect of the class I found useful were the discussions with other colleagues, and access to resource materials.

Other

• Everything.
• Everything - I can't say anything was not useful.

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

No Changes to Recommend

• I thought the structure was great.
• I don't know!  I really liked how the class was conducted as a discussion and I really liked all of the handouts and examples I received.
• I liked the course!
• Can't think of anything.
• If I could tell you anything to improve the course I would - I can't.

Comments on Use of Small Group Time

• Small group sharing is good but sometimes too time consuming when we did the whole class round robin type of sharing.
• More focused presentations by students/groups.  Often when groups presented after a discussion amongst themselves, I felt they just regurgitated everything their small group discussed.  Not sure how to structure this better, but thought I would mention it.
• Student presentations of projects:  Please limit time students report back on projects and briefs - 5 minutes should be sufficient.  It is really tiresome to hear people ramble on for long lengths of time.

Comments on Use of Large Group Time

• if possible -- spend more time on readings.  Also, give us more in-depth readings.
• More information on learning/teaching modern research.  Their practical use.
• I think that the two of you have a lot to offer regarding techniques in teaching, and I think that it would be great if you could talk a bit more about different methods in class.

Comments on Disciplinary Distinctions

• I think that focusing on humanities vs. social sciences vs. hard sciences would be good.  I had a hard time relating some subjects in class to my field.
• Maybe more of a focus on the sciences and how to do more active learning in traditionally lecture-based courses.

Other Comments

• I would say the only thing I would change would be the organization of the information on the website.  Finding information for class was difficult at times.
• I don't know why attendance was so poor.  It was disappointing in that I think it affected how serious students were taking the class.

Question 3: Other comments about the class

Thank you!  I have learned a great deal!

Thank you for all of the help!

I really liked the overall structure of the course.  Although we didn't have time to go into detail of all aspects of teaching.  I now know where to find a lot of resource and was made aware of how much is known and research about how students learn.

Specific goal for group sharing so no one goes on and on about their own class.  Group people with similar field for discussion.

Thanks for an informative course.  This class has really helped me think about student learning.

I appreciate the low-key atmosphere and emphasis on making this valuable for us.

Thank you! I'll probably be asking you a few questions about teaching soon.

Thank you so much for always being available for help and comments!

Thanks!

Great class - very helpful!!  So nice to meet you both -- will be in touch in the future.

It was a very useful course!

The overall structure - group discussions, group projects, readings and reviews was great.

I enjoyed the class.  I needed this class to help me develop my teaching criteria, and polish my teaching philosophy.

This was the right course at the right time for me.  I have, for the first time, a real orientation to teaching and learning - And a completed portfolio that's been sent out.  Thank you!

I wonder if the dept. should consider beyond 630 for those of us wishing to continue working on teaching.

Departments Represented in the Course

Here is a list of departments represented in GRDSCH 630 during Winter 2005:

• Anthropology
• Art
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Biology
• Biology Teaching
• Chemistry
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Education
• Forest Resources
• Health Services
• Music
• Psychology
• Slavic Languages and Literature
• Urban Design & Planning

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