Evaluating Faculty

Faculty members at Evergreen are asked to solicit evaluations of their work from all of their students. The Faculty Handbook requires that all student evaluations received by a faculty member must be included in the faculty member's portfolio. Faculty evals are not “required” from students, but faculty are required to have them in their portfolios!  I would like you to complete a final evaluation of me, writing a new one if you already wrote one for fall/winter, this time speaking specifically about spring quarter.  This document must be completed on the official form (available on the computer center computers and online) typed, proofread and signed. Please bring it with you to your evaluation conference. If you would prefer not to deliver the evaluation to me personally, you may leave it with my program secretary, Carolyn Raines, instead. The following list of questions may help you to consider specific issues that were the most important to us as a study abroad group.  You don’t have to speak specifically to any aspect of this piece of paper.  You may also address the more standard evaluation questions that follow.
 
1. How well did I invite you to recognize what some Americans have chosen to define as “Irishness” and to see how it differs from what living people in the 21st century do and say in Ireland?
2. How effective was I in facilitating opportunities for learning beyond traditional forms of scholarly intellectual inquiry (e.g. living tradition and practice instead of theory and speculation)?
3. To what extent did I create and facilitate a program structure and learning environment that encouraged the exploration of Irishness in a real-life context?
4. In what ways have I and this program provided skills and perspectives that have increased your effectiveness in dealing with the presentation and representation of culture?
5. Reflect on the combination of language, music, dance, crafts, and travel in this program. How well did I work together with Liam and the teachers at Oideas Gael in creating an interdisciplinary learning environment?

General Evaluation Items (from Academic Advising web page on writing faculty evaluations).
1. How well did the faculty member meet commitments in the following areas?
    * Teaching activity directly involving students
    * Academic advising of students
    * Maintenance of student records
    * Academic planning of the program
2. Did the faculty member exercise good and fair standards in the awarding of credit to students?
3. What evidence did the faculty member show of ability to do the following kinds of work?
    * Ability to organize a lecture, seminar discussion, reading list, field trip effort, depending on assignment
    * Ability to distinguish and emphasize important concepts for students to grasp, remember
    * Ability to formulate clear, useful assignments of reasonable (but challenging!) length and difficulty
    * Ability to evaluate students' work fairly--without undue harshness or softness
*  Ability to adjust to students' level of comprehension
* Ability to communicate enthusiasm and interest for subject matter
    * Ability to promote serious and interesting discussion; skill at asking open-ended questions; skill at encouraging students to ask questions and initiate discussion
    * Ability to tolerate points of view different from his/her own, to encourage independent thinking on the part of students, and to get students to be open to the views of others
    * Efficiency in giving students prompt feedback on their work
* Accessibility to students who need academic help
4. How well did the faculty member adapt to the situation? Did he or she handle with authority relations between students and faculty and between faculty and faculty without difficulty? How easily does he or she come to understand the point of view of others? Is the faculty member willing to discuss ideas and functional matters without excessive personal prejudice intervening?
5. How able does the faculty member appear to be in handling instruction in his/her principal area of expertise? That is, does he or she have a good grasp of the field?  [for your faculty, that includes cultural studies, traditional Irish arts, ethnomusicology, language, Irish studies, etc.]
6. Is the faculty member capable of planning and carrying through the coordination of a program?