How to Write an Evaluation of Instructions in Memo Form

Every year, college instuctors face evaluation.

In colleges and universities across the country, there is a yearly ritual known as teacher evaluation. In this process, the students will be asked to fill out a bubble sheet to answer questions about things like the instructors' teaching methods, fairness and accessibility. These instructions are then used to determine any changes that might be necessary in his instruction methods. The information is given to the instructors individually without revealing the names of those students who filled out the forms. One problem with this anonymous approach is that it makes it difficult to judge your own performance as an instructor relative to others in the department. To an extent, this can be addressed with a general evaluation of instruction memo.

Instructions

1. Choose the major common points in the evaluations that you would like to address in the memos. For example, if a number of instructors are receiving low points for organization in their lectures, these points should be discussed.

2. You should also create a chart with a series of curves to illustrate the highs, lows and averages that instructors in the department received on various categories, keeping names and other identifying elements out of the memo, of course.

3. Draft your memo based on the information you gleaned from the evaluations and add your chart. Since you don't want the memo to be completely negative, make sure that in addition to any problem areas you point out, you also mention the overall good job being done and the improvements being made in many areas (if any). Send this memo privately to instructors.

References

• Student Evaluations: A Critical Review