Every Macalester student knows the feeling. With finals looming, you enter your class for the last time and are prompted by your professor to fill out a survey about the course. With millions of other tasks on your mind, you rush through the form so you can return to working on other assignments. Whether you loved or hated the class, you paint in broad strokes that heighten your judgments and truncate your reasoning.
But many students may not know the seriousness with which many faculty members and administrators consider their comments, both positive and negative.
“It’s scary because these things that students might not take seriously become very serious for high-stakes decisions,” Professor of Political Science Lesley Lavery said.
End-of-course surveys and other forms that solicit student feedback are often used to determine whether professors receive contract renewals, promotions and tenure.
Unfortunately, these surveys too often expose female and BIPOC instructors to prejudiced and hurtful comments.
“The course surveys make it somewhat of a popularity contest,” Professor of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Getiria Onsongo said. “For example, [students say] things like ‘Oh, I find them easy to talk to’ and ‘oh, they are approachable.’ And you can imagine how, if students are used to a professor that looks a certain way and teaches a certain way, and you don’t fit that mold, then you’re not approachable.”
Lavery also noticed in her past course surveys an inappropriate focus on herself rather than on the course.
“There used to be a question on the course [survey],” she said. “‘Did anything about this course impede your learning?’ And someone just wrote ‘she was pregnant.’ Like, was I erasing the board with my stomach?”
Though Lavery took this comment in stride, she noted that other professors will often ask their colleagues to pre-screen student feedback and warn them about rude, unhelpful comments. Other times, professors will delay reading feedback altogether, even if reading it sooner may help them improve a course.
Lavery and Onsongo’s experiences align with a growing body of research showing that course surveys reflect racist, misogynist and ageist biases.
While Macalester includes a statement at the beginning of the end-of-course survey intended to make students aware of these biases, Lavery feels that this is only somewhat effective.
“I really appreciate that there’s a bias statement at the beginning of these end-of-course survey forms,” she said. “I don’t know that students read it.”
Lavery also worried about a backlash effect wherein students wrote harsher comments in response to reading a bias awareness statement.
“That actually can set off some defensiveness sometimes in students and makes it potentially even worse,” she said.
Despite these issues, several professors recognize tangible benefits when surveys are used constructively. Professor of Sociology Erik Larson maintained that the surveys can provoke reflection on course design if students concentrate on course-related issues rather than personal traits.
“The end-of-course survey is most useful as a means for faculty members teaching a course to think about ‘What am I trying to do in the course? What’s working well? What can I change so it could be more effective?’” said Larson. “Having conversations about what is in those surveys often gives faculty members chances to reflect on things.”
Professors also noted that students could make their feedback more useful and less biased by providing specific, actionable comments on the content of the course, rather than ranting about the personality of the instructor.
“The feedback should be about the courses and the learning that you got from the courses, rather than the person as an instructor,” Lavery said. “Because there are some things I can’t change about who I am and how I teach, but I can change the readings that I use, or if I lecture a little bit more.”
Onsongo tells his students, “If there’s something that didn’t work, let me know and I’ll figure out how to change it. If you vent, that’s fine, but that’s not actionable information.”
While course surveys have their benefits and drawbacks, some professors emphasize the necessity of considering who reaps the benefits and who incurs the costs.
“Will there be a loss if we don’t have course surveys?” Onsongo said. “Yes, because we need some feedback from students on how our teaching is going. But, right now, the people who are bearing the cost of the downsides of having course surveys are mostly women and BIPOC faculty.”
