Mid-Semester Evaluation

Much of what you achieve in your classes from week to week is invisible at Faculty, School and program level. Student grades provide some data, but only you and your students know how the learning is proceeding. Some activities may work as planned; others may be less, or more, successful than you anticipated.

An informal source of formative evaluation can be a suggestions box or "muddiest point" box that you set up at regular classes. Invite your students to jot down any concepts or instructions that they find unclear so that you can address them in subsequent classes. This helps you evaluate both how well the students are learning and how well you are teaching.

Talking informally to students about how the course is progressing is a useful way to obtain their input during a teaching session. Although such feedback might not be representative, you can act on it very quickly, preventing problems arising at a later point.

Another effective strategy is peer evaluation. You can obtain useful insights into your teaching practices by having your peers sit in on a lecture or tutorial. These peers can be colleagues from the same or a different school, or from a university support service.

Such observation is never neutral, however. Peer observation works best as a learning experience if the focus is on understanding rather than judging. The feedback should be constructive and serve as a basis for critical self-reflection and dialogue.