Catherine Rawn

My plans for working on revisions to a manuscript were derailed this morning by the news that our Student Evaluations of Teaching from last term were released. Reading these evaluations is an emotional event for me, and this is particularly true on the first look (of many!). As always, I’m filled with anxiety and hesitation: Did my students like me? Did they appreciate the risks I took in class? In testing? Did I push them to learn — just enough or too much or not enough? Did they take the time to complete the evaluations? (fyi: 583 did — which represents 54% of all my students.)

For the first look today I examined the numbers, particularly the six UBC University Module Items (UMIs), just to get a feel for what they’re saying. Here are my impressions of these numbers for 2009/2010: Overall, I’m satisfied, with some exceptions (both high and low). Psyc 217, Research Methods, is a course I love and have now taught 4 times – and I’m pleased to report that my students rate it highly. Students in my Intro Psychology courses, both terms, rated me well but not exceptional, and I think that’s totally fair. It was my first time teaching those courses, and the numbers are in the range of those I received the first time I taught Psyc 217. Onward and upward!

Across all 6 courses I taught this year, my highest scores come from the “Concern for Students” UMI. This tells me that my deep value of caring for students and their learning is being witnessed in the eyes of my students, through my efforts to this put this value into action (e.g., see my teaching philosophy). Wonderful news!

My lowest ratings come from the “Fair Evaluations” item, and this concerns me. These numbers, particularly for this of all items, are difficult to interpret: Are my students perceiving the learning assessments to be very challenging (which I don’t mind), or are assessments perceived to be so demanding that success is unattainable (which I do mind)? I definitely need to ponder this one further as I dive more deeply into the data. I already know that my evaluation strategy for 208 will change considerably next year (e.g., the midterm was much too difficult and/or lengthy; peer evaluations of papers didn’t work as smoothly as I’d hoped). Of all my courses this year, 208 was the course rated most poorly by my students. I think a large part of that had to do with the complications with evaluations. It was a brand new, custom course that I designed, and although lots went well (I have loads of data on what great things students learned!), there is a lot of room for improvement.

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about my student evaluations. They help me to see from students’ perspectives what I do well and where I need to focus my improvement efforts. Thanks to everyone who completed them! I will share further insights as I consider them further. Note that I’ll be working on revising my courses over the summer months. If you were a student in any of my courses this year, and are interested in giving some specific, constructive  feedback on any aspect of the course, please feel free to contact me to set up an appointment.

Once again, my application to UBC to fund Psychology TA Development has been successful – yay! I apply annually for funding, which comes from the Office of the Provost and VP Academic: http://www.vpacademic.ubc.ca/tatraining/index.htm. Over the past three years, I am grateful to have received $11 625.75 toward the training and development of our Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows in Psychology. Thanks to everyone who participates in these events for demonstrating a committment to teaching. Below is an excerpt from the application outlining the upcoming programming for 2010/2011. I look forward to your participation!

The Psychology Graduate Student Professional Development Series in Teaching and Teaching Assistance will be launched in September 2010. This new title provides an organizing framework for our two existing programs, subsuming both the Teaching Assistant Development Program aimed at an introduction level, and the Professional Development in Teaching Program aimed for more experienced TAs and TFs (details for both are forthcoming).

Yesterday I began my journey into learning how to garden! With the guidance of our friend, Lesley Duncan, my husband and I transformed our condo’s dull, concrete balcony into something beautiful, complete with outdoor acacia wood flooring and a variety of filled planters.

I know next to nothing about growing plants. So when we set out in the garden centre I felt a bit anxious and confused. There are so many variables to consider: annual/perennial, sun needs, water needs, space needs, height needs… it was tempting to just give up. But I want to learn. Basic gardening can’t be that difficult, and the results can be beautiful.  So I sought Lesley’s help. She is a thoughtful, patient (award-winning!) teacher generally, and is also quite knowledgeable about horticulture. She helped us make decisions by listening to our needs and ideas, taught us how to plant, when to water, and so on.

Throughout the process, I felt keenly aware of my novice status. I felt emotions including excitement, anxiety, and a strong desire to avoid messing up. The experience reinforced something I have come to learn about myself: I often prefer to learn in communion with others. When I needed to learn about gardening, I didn’t turn first to a book or a website. I turned to a friend, a tutor, a guide, who could help me identify what I needed to know now in a sea of possible knowledge. (I’m now reminded again: “We teach who we are” (Palmer).) It was fun learning something new, but I’m not sure how much fun (rather than stress) I would have had if I didn’t have such a knowledgable, kind guide.

At the end of the day, when we were remarking about the future possibilities of bright flowers and voluptuous herbs, Lesley wisely noted that if something went wrong — a plant didn’t like it there, got over/under-watered or whatever — we would just learn not to do that again next year, but that it wouldn’t be a catastrophe. This simple nugget of wisdom offered me a productive way to frame whatever happens to our plants over the summer. Thanks for being such a great teacher/guide/friend, Lesley!

Ah, May is upon us. Term grades have been submitted, and I’m just cleaning up a few loose ends from the term and year. I am feeling a sense of calm and space that I haven’t had in a while. This space is allowing me to ponder my teaching and learning (T&L) activities from a broad perspective, rather than the day-to-day rush of preparations and delivery. The latter is, of course, vitally important to T&L, but for me, my meaning and purpose is derived largely from these reflective times.

After surviving my first year as full-time faculty, I am pleased to report that I still love T&L!! It has been far from easy to make it through daily preparations for class, exams and assignments, and committees, meetings with students (both graduate and undergraduate), and so on. This year I have learned much about the material I was teaching, my students, and who I want to be as a teacher. I believe I did well this year (student evals forthcoming), under the pressing circumstances, but not as well as I would like. I am excited at the promise of preparing for next year, and for having the time and space to do it better. That is, for me, one of the many joys of teaching: Each year being more effective than the last.

I look forward to documenting here my journey this summer as I work toward bettering my courses and myself for my students in 2010/2011.