Because our department is situated far from the main campus, I seldom have a chance to visit the university’s main library. The separate library for engineering is much closer and contains most of the Computer Science collection, but sometimes one needs material from a broader field. Today I had to deliver a form to admin, and popped into the main library while I had the chance.
I was looking for a particular book that has been on my reading list, but I found three. The first is about postgraduate supervision (what I was looking for, but the book is useless), another deals with the management of student research project (about just as useless), and then the treasure: “What Students Really Think of Professors” by Jackson and Murray. What an excellent little book! Most of it (roughly 90%) simply quotes classroom evaluation forms filled out by students. But this has been organized into topics, and it is interspersed with short introductions and conneting text. The result is a wonderful insight into almost all aspects of teaching a course. I am very impressed.
I do not want to quote much of it, but the chapter on humour in the classroom is irresistible. It has been a long time since I laughed this hard. Just a couple of my favourites follow below, but the text introducing the feedback is often just as funny. So, everything from here on down comes straight from the book.
A few share the remarkable things they have encountered in the course.
This opened my eyes to trees, forests and other things that go along with forestry.
One student enlarged his vocabulary (and ours) with a new verb that really does seem to capture what he meant to say.
Lectures frequently drearied off of topic.
And this is our most favorite redundancy.
An excellent professor. In fact he is the most favorite professor I ever had.
And don’t ya just hate it when this happens:
This course and instructor were exceptional. I enjoyed this class more than any class. A lot of it had to do with the professor’s enthusiasm. The only bad part was when he broke his collar bone!!
Similarly, a good professor is able to introduce students to unusual facts that are not widely understood.
I really enjoyed the course and it made me think about things – curious about why things happen. Having the woman come in to talk about birth control was helpful. I also learned a lot that I never knew before such as reproduction. I never knew women ovulated only one egg per month. I never knew the vagina wasn’t the opening for the removal of urine. Overall it was very educational and fun. Lab really helped understand concepts.
And remember, no matter how good a professor is, there is always room for improvement.
Please do your hair differently – at least periodically. The barrete/ponytail inversion is quite unbecoming.
This really boggles my mind and flabbers my ghast.
You should perhaps gather some quotes from your own students.
I’ve thought of that, but I don’t trust myself to be as unbiased as I would like to be. Also, it might encourage future students to be outrageous just to get published. It would really be better for them and for me to just let them speak their minds.