IF YOU WANT TO:
Inviting a colleague or member of the TIES staff to conduct an oral evaluation with your students midway through the semester and report the results back to you.
This procedure was developed by Joseph Clark of the University of Washington and has been tried out in several classes at Berkeley. After introducing the visiting evaluator to the class you must leave the room for 30 minutes. The evaluator asks the students to form small groups of five or six who are then instructed to take 10 minutes to: (1) select a spokesperson/recorder; (2) decide on something in the course they find very helpful; (3) decide on something they would like changed in the course.
While the groups are discussing the issues, the evaluator circulates among them making certain that the groups are working on the task. At the end of 10 minutes, the spokesperson from each group reports the results of each group's discussion which the evaluator records on the board. After all groups have reported, the evaluator summarizes what the overall consensus seems to be and asks for clarification on any areas in which there was disagreement between the groups.
The comments on the board are recorded on paper to be shared with the instructor by the evaluator later that day.
See also suggestion No. 109 on how to acknowledge mid-term feedback from students.
Limitations on Use of Suggestion
Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California