Course observations question

[kaysixteen]

So last Monday my supervisor sent a mass email to all her adjuncts in various types of courses (at least the reading and writing ones) she oversees, thanking us for our efforts and telling us to expect a follow-up email later in the week to set up a time for her class observations visit.  But as of 10 days, no such email has been received.  I'm pretty eager to have her, because 1)I'd like her opinion of the campus expectations wrt student phone use, if, as I suspected, students still use it with her there, and 2)I really do think I'm doing a good job and want to get a good reference.  But I'm wondering, should I email her to remind her to do this,or not?

[Parasaurolophus]

My vote: a gentle reminder would be in order.

[polly_mer]

However, "a week" for many academics means "more than a day and less than a month", not 5-7 calendar days.

[kaysixteen]

The woman emailed today saying she'll observe next Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to it, but I guess I want to ask what I should expect?  Will there likely be some sort of sit-down meeting afterwards?  A written report?  I have only gotten these things once, from the one chair I ever adjuncted for who ever observed a class of mine.

[Hegemony]

Probably differs by department and institution, so ask her.  My guess would be that eventually a document about a page long will be produced, and that it will be generally descriptive, with some praise, since it will probably be filed away in the office of some dean whom the department wants to impress.  If the observer thinks there's something seriously wrong with your teaching (which I would doubt), she'd probably mention it to you in person — "Hey, let's talk about how to handle situations like that student walking out, maybe come in and chat with me next week."  Barring that, you're probably good. This kind of observation is generally different from the kind by people in your Teaching Center (or whatever your place calls it), who come in and video your class and have an in-depth discussion with you.  I'd guess the current observation is more pro forma.

[downer]

My last observation involved the dept chair sitting in on my class quietly, chatting to me a bit after about some of the ideas I had put out there, and writing a glowing report. It is helpful to remember that chairs look better when it turns out that their hiring choices are brilliant teachers.

[polly_mer]

It is helpful to remember that chairs look better when it turns out that their hiring choices are brilliant teachers.

Unless a crackdown is occurring and all the chairs have been told to make recommendations for improvement for everyone in their department so glowing reports will be held against the chair as not meeting expectations for observations.

The chair may also see some writing on the wall and be looking for people to shed to free up money for a consolidated full-time position for a long-standing adjunct.

The chair may be looking for something specific based on student complaints, but not urgent enough to observe and fire immediately.

The chair may be just checking a box because good enough is fine and glowing will be seen as weird.

We can't know from the outside.

[downer]

It is helpful to remember that chairs look better when it turns out that their hiring choices are brilliant teachers.

Unless a crackdown is occurring and all the chairs have been told to make recommendations for improvement for everyone in their department so glowing reports will be held against the chair as not meeting expectations for observations.

The chair may also see some writing on the wall and be looking for people to shed to free up money for a consolidated full-time position for a long-standing adjunct.

The chair may be looking for something specific based on student complaints, but not urgent enough to observe and fire immediately.

The chair may be just checking a box because good enough is fine and glowing will be seen as weird.

We can't know from the outside.

All true enough. It is a good idea to talk to other faculty in the program, be friendly with dept staff, to get a sense of which way the wind is blowing. The rumor mill is often helpful.

In the last 4 schools I taught at in the last 3 years, I have been observed just one single time.

[Caracal]

It is helpful to remember that chairs look better when it turns out that their hiring choices are brilliant teachers.

Unless a crackdown is occurring and all the chairs have been told to make recommendations for improvement for everyone in their department so glowing reports will be held against the chair as not meeting expectations for observations.

The chair may also see some writing on the wall and be looking for people to shed to free up money for a consolidated full-time position for a long-standing adjunct.

The chair may be looking for something specific based on student complaints, but not urgent enough to observe and fire immediately.

The chair may be just checking a box because good enough is fine and glowing will be seen as weird.

We can't know from the outside.

Anything is possible, but based on the information we have, none of this seems very likely. Observations are stressful, but anything where you get a formal evaluation from someone is usually a good thing. It makes you less vulnerable to complaints from disgruntled students, weird eval comments and angry people on rate my professor.

It should also encourage your chair to see you as a colleague. Most people who teach are going to be pretty sympathetic observers of a class as long as they can see that you are a reasonable, conscientious person trying to do a good job. And yes, asking for advice on some of the challenges the chair might observe is a great idea. The feedback might be quite helpful, but it also allows you to demonstrate that you are someone trying to improve and open to suggestions

[kaysixteen]

Thanks.  I do wish I had more time on campus to meet other faculty, etc., and if I'm going to be around next semester, I'll try to facilitate that happening. As it is, I will ask the woman when I see her what the procedure is, and do so whilst emphasizing that I indeed am very eager for her feedback, and for the chance to have an in-depth follow-up conversation.  Btw, the woman is not an academic, but a former hs teacher--I don't know what her educational background is save that I know she has no doctorate of any kind and is not listed on the www site as a faculty member, but rather is a full-time campus staff officer.

[spork]

Thanks.  I do wish I had more time on campus to meet other faculty, etc., and if I'm going to be around next semester, I'll try to facilitate that happening. As it is, I will ask the woman when I see her what the procedure is, and do so whilst emphasizing that I indeed am very eager for her feedback, and for the chance to have an in-depth follow-up conversation.  Btw, the woman is not an academic, but a former hs teacher--I don't know what her educational background is save that I know she has no doctorate of any kind and is not listed on the www site as a faculty member, but rather is a full-time campus staff officer.

This suggests that oversight of the very remedial welcome-to-college basic skills course you are teaching a section of has been dumped onto the student life, admissions, or "professional advising" side of the organization.

[kaysixteen]

The woman is a former k12 public and charter school teacher, with specific experience with the population demographic served by my class, and she did teach a section of this class at least once in the past.  She's also newly promoted to the top position in this department.  She begged off of observing Tuesday's class, said some sort of emergency meeting arose, but does promise to come Thursday.  Still, i got another depressing email today from her that I also had to deal with, and I'm torn between being unimpressed and realizing I messed up somewhat.  Thursday will start two days of student 'articles presentations', a low value, think 2,5 percent of total course grade,  this assignment being completely cut and pasted from the syllabus I inherited.  The task is simple, choose an article on the topic of 'source selection' and write a short 2pp, report on it and give it to the class.  This assignment is keyed to follow several days of lectures on the topic of critical thinking and propaganda awareness.  I told the students to have chosen their article by Halloween, and gave several reminders to do just that, and i also said that anyone having a harx time finding an article should take then syllabus to the reference librarian for help.  Today my boss emailed to say that several students had come to her to say that the librarian couldn't figure out what I wanted her to do, which I believe, because one young man in class today showed me two articles given to him by the librarian, and asked me to choose one of them for him.  Neither were appropriate, both were confusing the assignment for the group presentation done 2 weeks back,  I let the kid do one of the articles anyhow, because, well, he ain't responsible for the librarian failing to understand what an article on the general topic of 'source selection', something that should be right up a reference librarian's alley, was.  It honestly never dawned on me that the librarian wouldn't be able to understand the what is to me clear syllabus language.  I don't like this assignment and plan to essentially dump it going forward, but it was in the syllabus I got.  So, in response to my supervisor's email, I clarified the assignment as best I could, reminded her how many times I had told students to select an article by Halloween and to go to the ref desk for help, etc, and how none did it on time and only three had done it even by today, and, more importantly, reminded her that I didn't write the assignment in the first place.  I also offered to delay the presentations till next Tuesday if she thinks that best.  We'll see what happens, but I would very mu h like your thoughts, especially on the question of whether the librarians should have figured out the tbing based on the syllabus, or whether I should have given more specific instructions sheets to the kids to rake to  her?  In any case, I'm really beginning to realize just how much that seems so clear and obvious to me, appears nonetheless to be nigh onto incomprehensible to the students. .. What's harder is to discern when which is which?

[Hegemony]

I think librarians, and anyone, benefit from more information rather than less.  I myself have no idea what "source selection" is.  Of course I'm not a librarian, but I can also imagine that they deal with different faculty members having very different ideas of what the phrase might mean (some of them correct, some of them less so).  So the librarian probably asked the student, "What exactly does your professor mean? What kind of article are you looking for?" And the student said, "I have no idea."  So the librarian made a guess, maybe based on some other prof who had an assignment with a similar title, maybe on who knows what.  And obviously didn't guess correctly.  Rather than trying to figure out who to assign blame to, I think the best way forward is probably to make things very very clear when you can.  And of course to dump this assignment in the future.

[kaysixteen]

The assignment really is deficient, and if I held the students to exactly what the thing originally held to each kid would have had to choose a different article, on a first come first served basis, so each kid could lead a different article discussion,  i did cut out that part, which seemed like a nightmare to have to plan out.

That said, 'source selection' is a pretty standard topic MLS students deal with in reference librarian and bibliographic instruction classes, and being an MLS myself, I guess I assumed my colleagues would have been able to glean the assignment's meaning, especially since it was a cut and pasted assignment the reference staff might well have encountered before.  But I certainly presumed too much comprehension on the students'parts.  This assignment will certainly be retired, but I will come up with something better to do on this topic, which is and will remain a vital part of the syllabus'topics.

[polly_mer]

That said, 'source selection' is a pretty standard topic MLS students deal with in reference librarian and bibliographic instruction classes,

Your students are not MLS students.  Like Hegemony, I have no idea what a "source selection" is in this context.

Googling the term brings up a lot of hits related to procurement for government contracts, as I'm accustomed to using the term.  Even adding "MLS" or "reference librarian" doesn't turn up something different in the first few hits.  Are you really making your study skills students get articles on government procurement processes?