ISIS forms may have impact!

One of my Bloglines feeds is Cognitive Daily, a website that posts interesting cognitive psychology articles, breaking them down into layperson’s terms. (Yup. Layperson.)

My eye was caught by the article: The Six-second Teacher Evaluation .

From the article:
From the teacher’s perspective, however, the students can’t possibly have enough information to make an effective evaluation of their teaching. A college course represents just a tiny sliver of the total knowledge in a discipline, and even after a semester in a college course, students are in no position to make judgements that will impact a faculty member’s entire career.

A 1993 study by Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal found just the opposite: students actually need much less information to make judgements that accurately predict end-of-semester evaluations.

This makes me feel better about spending time filling out the University of Illinois’ ISIS forms. I’ve found that all through the semester, I think of things I am dissatisfied with, but come ISIS time, I’ve completely forgotten – most likely because I have finished the course, and therefore don’t care anymore.

This semester, I tried taking notes as I thought of stuff. This is kind of scary and incriminating (if, say, my mini Post It becomes affixed to something I hand in), but in the end, I tend to come up with more constructive comments than just “LIS502 needs an overhaul”.

I like the idea of having the opportunity to give feedback that will help teacher become better – and make classes better for those who come after me (Marti and Sara).