5 Things: Faculty Evaluations

Author’s note: read the introduction to the 5 Things You’ll Only Do At Hyde here.

Continuing along in alphabetical order with the “5 Things,” this post covers Faculty Evaluations.

Faculty Evaluations Key Quotes/Points:

• Faculty Evals provide a way for our teachers to be better at their jobs. This, in turn, provides our students with a better learning experience. It’s all about students and faculty working together to enhance learning and teaching… for all.
• “Faculty Evals” are LIVE. These are not anonymous comment sheets filled out by students at the conclusion of exams; these are direct verbal comments delivered to the faculty member who is sitting on stage – in a chair that we call “The Hot Seat” – in front of the entire school community.
• Having facilitated Faculty Evals for decades, I recall only one occasion when I have felt compelled to reprimand a student relative to a comment made.
• The students are sometimes so freaked out over the whole idea that the adults have voluntarily placed themselves in such a position of public vulnerability that they are not quite sure how to respond.
• One sign of it working well: After the facilitator concludes the process, we see seemingly endless pairings of students and teachers engaged in further 1-on-1 discussions.

To read the piece on Faculty Evaluations, hover over the embed below and click the square outline in the lower right corner to view full screen. Alternatively, you can download the PDF here.