ARW Spring '09: Summary of course evals/student feedback from Spring term my students

This is my third time teaching ICU's Spring Academic Reading and Writing course, so I feel that I've been able to set up the schedule and support systems for student learning mostly.

I'm particularly happy that my students felt I conducted the class with energy, gave them plenty of opportunities for interaction, helped and responded to them appropriately in and out of class, and managed time well.

Below is from one of my two classes. The other class was similar, but I won't bother averging them.
Anonymous "Teaching Effectiveness Survey" Results. N=17 June 12, 2009.
4=Strongly Agree, 3=Agree, 2=Disagree, 1=Strongly Disagree

Basic Questions for all ICU Courses:
1. Course goals were clearly presented 3.76/4
2. The grading policy was clearly presented 3.71
3. The course stimulated my interest 3.88
4. The lecture portion was appropriate (English skills course, few lectures, so n/a)
5. There were sufficient opportunities for student interaction 3.94
6. The instructor conducted the class with enthusiasm 3.88
7. The instructor taught in a way that helped my understanding 3.82
8. The instructor responded appropriately to questions and assignments. 3.94
9. The instructor managed time well. 3.94

ELP ARW course specific questions:
14. The course helped me develop my Academic Reading skills 3.35 (low)
15. The course helped me develop my Academic Writing skills 3.94
16. The articles in the ELP reader were appropriate to my English ability. 3.35
17. The class Activities helped me learn. 3.94
18. The course assignments were intellectually challenging 3.88
19. The amount of work in the course was reasonable 2.94 (vs. 3.18 for all ELP levels AB)
20. the instructor provided opportunities to answer questions outside of class. 3.71
21. My work was evaluated fairly. 3.65

Departmental averages for all instructors are mostly similar, but 4 of 17 students chose "Disagree" and 1 chose "Strongly Disagree" on No.19 and seemed to feel I worked them a bit too hard. The ARW course at ICU is highly challenging and I pushed my students to master the content and skills at a high level by showing evidence of preparation for each class, especially for the reading. Perhaps it is better to take a more flexible approach and leave the choice to work hard or not up to the students? Autumn term is even more challenging in terms of reading quantity and documented essay skills, so I wonder whether I ought to give students a bit more slack. Of course, given the same criteria for quality work, their grades might suffer...but if they are aware of the need for taking the intiative it might be better overall to develop their autonomy. Or, keep it just as challenging to push them to be more efficient workers?

I received many positive comments supporting the results above with reference to how challenging but meaningful the learning experience was, but I will skip the praise and focus on improvement.

Student suggestions, which I encourage them to write in Japanese, included:

• もう少しスケジュールに余裕をもたせて欲しい。一日丸々宿題でつぶれることが多々あるので、授業に集中できるくらいの余裕がほしい。(My response: I agree that doing 4 or more hours of preparation for each class, as several students told me, is too much. I want to design tasks differently and help students find strategies to be more efficient. 75% of my students studied "6 hours or more" per week, which was the highest choice--as opposed to 34.5% for the department. ARW has 3 classes per week, so doing 6 hours per week, or 2 hours per class seems acceptable to me, but I think many of my students were doing 3~4 hours before each of the classes, including reading for discussions, and essay writing related activities. 2 hours per class seems ideal to me.)
  
• 全体的にハードで最後の方尻切れトンボになってしまった気がする。もう少し内容を減らしじっくりやるべきだと思った。(My response: I agree that the part with Old Man and the Sea was too rushed. It should be changed to a focus on how to do independent extensive reading over the summer.)
  
• ワークシートにチョイス式の質問箇所があったらいいなと思った。サマリー式の長文回答が嫌というわけではなく、理解したことを整理するために必用だと思ったから。（I agree! I want to put multiple choice questions on Moodle to assist with comprehension assessment.)

Extra note: I was very happy to see that my students expectations for A/B/C grades was almost exactly what I gave. 35% As, 50% Bs, 10% Cs, 5%Ds. I think this is because I emphasized objective criteria for grading essays and worksheets and asked students to self-evaluate themselves before I gave any evaluation. My grades are actually higher than the Program A average, so my students are working hard and getting rewarded for their efforts.

For Autumn term, which starts tomorrow, I want to aim for similar student perceptions of the class, so I think I will basically be using the same system for reading and writing instruction. Will I make changes?? That's my next job as I finish up my syllabus and evaluation criteria...