Analysis of Rockford College Teacher Evaluation

At Rockford College, Teacher Evaluation is done on a regular basis. Teachers are responsible to hand out Teacher Rating Scale forms to students by the end of classes, if the teacher is teaching more than one class in the current semester, he/she could pick up only one of these classes as the evaluating object. This activity serves two purposes: a) to measure teacher’s competence; b) to foster professional development and growth.

I. What’s on the TEACHER RATING SCALE

Students are asked to complete a list of bubble questions, each question is scaled from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest rate. (5=Excellent; 4=Good; 3=Adequate; 2=Poor; 1=Unobserved).

This questionnaire evaluates a teacher based on the following aspects:

1. Teaching Abilities and Teaching Attitude:

Tested with the Question 3, 4, 9 and Question 6, 7.

Questions concerning Teaching Abilities includes:

Whether the subject matter was well-organized;

Does the teacher know the subject matter; and

Instructor’s Speaking Ability

Teaching Attitude is measured by asking if the teacher is enthusiastic towards the subject and if the teacher is fair and impartial.

2. Teaching Skills

Evaluated by Question 1, 2, 5, 8.

This part mainly measures a teacher’s performance with respect to giving explanations, answers, examinations, etc.

For example,

If the teacher’s explanation of difficult material is generally clear;

3. Rapport and Communication with Students

Relationships with students are another significant factor in the teacher’s evaluation, and in the RC questionnaire, Questions 10, 11, 12 are designed for this purpose by measuring a teacher’s attitude in dealing with students, the class atmosphere, and if the teacher shows enough interest in student’s problems.

4. Teacher’s Personality

Question 13, 14 and 15 are used for this matter.

5. As a student, how would you rank the teacher and the course

Question 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

They ask how students feel about the teacher and the course, in another word, what’s the teacher and course’s popularity is to the students.

6. Written Comments

There is no specific space designed for student putting written comments, however, if there is any, backside of the sheet could be used.

II. RECOMMENDATION

First of all, as we can see from the analysis above, questions are mixed together without any classifications or order. To avoid confusion, I would recommend dividing similar questions into one section and use proper transitions between each section. For example, putting all the questions of measuring Teaching Skills in one group may help students understand what this section is about.

Secondly, some of the topic key words are a bit ambiguous to grasp from first sight. For instance, question 6 (Attitude toward Subject) and question 10 (Attitude) both talk about a teacher’s attitude but towards different subjects. These two statements may be clearer to us if it changes the topic of question 6 into Teaching Passion. Another example, question 7 (Fairness) could be understood as either the teacher’s fairness on scientific topics he/she is teaching or the teacher’s attitude towards students in the class. I think question 7 should be more specific.

Thirdly, Part 5 (questions 16 through 20) on the TEACHER