At the end of every module we have to hand out module review form and tutor evaluation forms. I'm just back from my last revision lecture in one module (not a module that I research in, but I get on very well with the prof in charge of it and enjoy teaching it). I had to hand out the module evaluation forms in it and collect them in at the end. I wasn't mentioned much in them, some people said I was excellent, some said they loved my topic and my handouts were good, but it's the bad ones that stick with you. One said to get rid of me because I was a crap lecturer and I gave the impression I didn't want to be there, another said I just read out my notes and another said my hand outs were difficult to follow.
Am I a crap lecturer? I don't know, I'm not the best, but I'm not the worst: I'm too self conscious to really throw myself into them and be all flamboyant, besides, it's not really me to do that. My other module reviews were fine, but I was the only one teaching them and there were only 11 students, so it was a different atmosphere.
Do I just read out my notes? Possibly: I do write them out in full so as not to forget anything, and I do consider it more important to get all the information across to the students than ad lib and forget most of it. It's a skill you pick up as you get more experience.
Were my notes difficult to follow? I didn't think so: I included all the relevant cases and statutes, quotations from the cases and important points I wanted to emphasise. The problem is we spend so much time satisfying the students that they always want more. There are complaints when there is no handout and complaints when there is one that's too long. What's the happy medium?
I have to hand these module evaluations to the convenor of it now: I've removed the really nasty ones and, in the interests of fairness, I've removed one that was nasty about her: it was totally uncalled for.
When you're feeling a bit low, those comments just send you plummeting. When you're questioning your career, those comments just make you question all the more. When you're thinking stuff you don't want to think, those comments just make you think you should do the thoughts.
2 comments:
Don't let them get you down. You actually hit the nail on the head when remarking that the students complain if they don't get a handout and complain when they do and it's a bit longer than they were expecting. We have a problem in this country caused by this government requiring everything to be quantified so that league tables can be compiled. I think the main reason that the Open University always comes out so high for student satisfaction is because its students are used to having to do things for themselves and are far more realistic about the help that they get from their tutors. I'll be honest and admit that I rarely attended any tutorials for the OU courses that I took for my degree, but I did get great support from my tutor when I needed it. All you can do is be there for your students and if they don't like that then it is their problem and not yours.
I echo madsadgirl. On the rare occasions I dragged myself out of bed and into a tutorial I can remember that whatever the lecturers did we would decide it was wrong. Simply because we were arsey young students!
Hope you're feeling more positive now, I'm sure if you lecture similar to the style you write in that you're doing a fantastic job!
BG Xx
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