Evaluating Your Students and Yourself

Faculty:
Quality rather than quantity is the most important thing to consider when providing feedback. The feedback should provide guidance for further learning rather than simply telling the student that s/he is wrong. Often a leading question such as “Where does ______ come into play here?” helps the student figure out why the answer or assertion was weak or incorrect. This results in a strengthening of the student’s understanding of the material.

TA:
I am a strong supporter of extensive feedback. In a large university such as UCLA students rarely receive personalized comments on their work. A TA has the advantage of having to deal with smaller classes and so can get to know the students better and provide more targeted feedback.

 If the only remarks the students see are subtracted points or phrases such as “re-write” or “unclear”, the only useful part of the evaluation is the overall score. Feedback should be pointing out ways to make things better and should be consistent with any rubric you are using. Students are looking for a practical, constructive advice, not a harsh criticism.

Student:

I hate it when my assignments come back and they look like they are bleeding. Why is everything always graded with red ink? I guess the red ink is okay when my TA is helping me understand my mistakes so I can learn but it seems like some TAs enjoy pointing out my errors and making me feel bad. Those are the TA’s who don’t care if I learn or not. They’re just there for the paycheck.