To Appraise Or Not To Appraise


RAJIB KUMAR

Exploring the sensitive gamut of faculty evaluation by students

The other day there was a brawl at the quarterly faculty meeting of a leading management institute on the sensitive issue of introduction of faculty evaluation by students.

Two senior academicians got into a heated debate; “Some 20,000 students are getting into WBUT affiliated institutions every year now…do you know what kind of students are getting in…you want them to evaluate me? Excuse me…” one thundered at another.

I listened with interest the passionately expressed views of the 60 something professor whose lectures I had attended some 15-20 years back. Surely he had a point. After all, our educational systems are a different ball game and it would be suicidal to implement predominantly western models like these before careful introspection.

Faculty evaluation forms at the end of every course every quarter end has been a regular feature in the United States for more than two decades now. In small and mid sized American private universities and colleges one particular faculty member designs his or her own programs; he then delivers the same and finally assesses student knowledge intake –before that he or she also has to choose an appropriate mode of doing so…. with such an expanse…all the more reason why an appraisal is required perhaps!

On completion of the course, students assess the program as well as the delivery skills of the faculty. Students may decide to remain confidential. The forms are filled up on the last class day and then one particular student collects all the forms; puts them into an envelope, duly seals it and ferries it over to the Dean’s (Academic Affairs) office or uses the campus mail room service to do the needful.

The importance of student feedback should never be undermined; after all they are the customers of our product. The success and failure levels of a faculty, unless under certain extraordinary circumstances (eg. unpopular decisions like frequent class tests or disciplinary action for sidetalking etc) should in all probability be quantified in terms of the success and failure of the students. After all don’t we contemplate on changing the home tutor of our ward if he or she gets a lesser grade in the exam than what is expected of him or her?

Students may often tend to judge a teacher based on so called “extraneous” criteria like her attire, his or her presentability, accent, the extent of his or her IT savvy ness etc. I have the views of a Chennai based lady faculty expressed in a recent edition of the National HRD Network Journal at hand. But the question is can we call these “extraneous” anymore?

Personality Development & Grooming have become a mandatory requisite for even Chartered Accountants, leave alone management students who are anyways expected to be suave. Just like a doctor must take care of his own health first, we, faculty members, need to equip ourselves with all these new age skills known by a variety of names-soft, finishing school, multi tasking and what not.

In my opinion, at the end of the day a performance appraisal of a faculty person must incorporate methods normally associated with appraising a corporate executive as well; namely, self-appraisal, peer evaluation and immediate superior evaluation addressing the needs of 360°

In addition, the faculty’s involvement in research and publication must also be an important component in the entire process. Faculty members must be constantly encouraged to write whether for the in house newsletter or relevant fraternity journals.
Whether we like it or not student feedback systems should be a part of the system but it should definitely have its “checks and balances” so that a bad fish or two do not misuse the system to settle personal scores with a faculty member. The final appraiser must carefully review the grades or comments made and try to first interpret any grossly adverse feedback in terms of real “extraneous” factors- disciplinary standards set by the faculty, the student evaluator’s personal records on absenteeism, performance in other classes, general attitude etc.

(Offline, Volume-5, No- 4, April 2007)