Comments on: Unsurprising http://rightwingnation.com/2008/04/29/unsurprising-2/ A little sanity in an insane blogosphere Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:21:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Right Wing Nation » A Pleasing Contrast http://rightwingnation.com/2008/04/29/unsurprising-2/#comment-118618 Right Wing Nation » A Pleasing Contrast Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:09:44 +0000 http://rightwingnation.com/2008/04/29/unsurprising-2/#comment-118618 [...] timely, considering that I just published an article on student evaluations yesterday. This over-educated idiot masquerading as a professor [...] […] timely, considering that I just published an article on student evaluations yesterday. This over-educated idiot masquerading as a professor […]

]]> By: jlee http://rightwingnation.com/2008/04/29/unsurprising-2/#comment-118565 jlee Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:41:43 +0000 http://rightwingnation.com/2008/04/29/unsurprising-2/#comment-118565 Just for grins, I went to RateMyProfessors.com to check out some of the teachers that I had had as an undergraduate as well as in grad school. A couple of things struck me as I read the student comments: 1) Negative comments appeared to come disproportionately from students in lower-level courses (especially the 100-level ones). Positive comments seemed more likely to come from 300/400 level. 2) Many of the negative comments were uselessly vague (e.g., "horrible teacher," "this teacher sux," &c.) and/or ad hominem ("teacher has yellow teeth," "teacher dresses frumpy," "teacher is so old, has one foot in the grave," &c.). It sounded a lot more like one big gripe session than an interest in evaluating teachers honestly. It's this kind of stuff that makes me extremely skeptical about the validity and/or usefulness of student evaluations. Sour grapes is not a compelling argument. Just for grins, I went to RateMyProfessors.com to check out some of the teachers that I had had as an undergraduate as well as in grad school. A couple of things struck me as I read the student comments:

1) Negative comments appeared to come disproportionately from students in lower-level courses (especially the 100-level ones). Positive comments seemed more likely to come from 300/400 level.

2) Many of the negative comments were uselessly vague (e.g., “horrible teacher,” “this teacher sux,” &c.) and/or ad hominem (”teacher has yellow teeth,” “teacher dresses frumpy,” “teacher is so old, has one foot in the grave,” &c.). It sounded a lot more like one big gripe session than an interest in evaluating teachers honestly.

It’s this kind of stuff that makes me extremely skeptical about the validity and/or usefulness of student evaluations. Sour grapes is not a compelling argument.

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