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Fresh Insights From Barry Oshry
THE CASE OF THE UNFAIRLY
JUDGED PROFESSOR
with
systemic implications for how teachers and
students evaluate one another
An All Too Familiar Tale
She takes her teaching
responsibilities seriously; she is committed to making a difference
in her students' lives. She prepares her syllabus meticulously, with
class by class activities and assignments, the most relevant and up
to date readings, illustrative cases, experiential activities. She prepares
thoroughly for each class, working hard to draw out her students, engaging
them, encouraging them, challenging them.
Some days are better
than others, but all in all she is feeling good about the work she is
doing and about her vocation as a professor. And then it hits! The student
evaluations. Now the thing about these evaluations is that for the most
part they are positive, some very positive. 5's on a 5-point scale with
notations written in the margins -- "best course so far,"
"appreciated your command of the material," and so forth.
But then there are the others, the 2's and 3's, along with the comments
-- "too shallow," "too many hours wasted in class discussion,"
"not enough substance from the professor," "I was expecting
more." The professor draws little solace from the positive evaluations,
the 3.9 overall rating, the glowing comments from several students.
What keeps her up at night and continues to trouble her during the day
are those 2's and 3's, the negative comments, the criticisms and complaints,
and worst of all, the fact that she was blindsided since none of this
came to the surface during the life of the course.
So here we have
an all too familiar classroom tale: the Righteously Screwed Student
("I paid my money, I came to class, I was entitled to a solid education,
and you, Professor, didn't deliver.") And on the other side we
have the Unfairly Judged Professor ("I worked my tail off, I did
my research, I put together the best course I could, I gave it my all,
and never did I hear a word of complaint. And this is the response I
get! Unfair!")
The Independence Bias
In the university
classroom, no less than in all our other social systems, we exist in
relationship with one another (see Seeing Systems, Act II), yet when
it comes to evaluations our focus tends to be on the individuals and
not on the relationship; the professor evaluates (grades) the student,
and then it is the student's chance to evaluate the professor. In all
of this, the relationship goes unnoticed.
Professor and student
exist in a Provider/Customer relationship in which the professor has
designated responsibility for providing an educational service and the
student is the designated recipient of that service. (I think it is
fair to say that in higher education the teacher/student relationship
is one of Provider/Customer, but that this is less clearly the case
in lower forms of education where many of the students may feel more
like inmates than customers. I maintain, although it is an arguable
point, that students in lower education are the willing and unwilling
products of educational systems and that the customers lie elsewhere:
universities, organizations, communities, parents.)
(THE
EDITORS: ENTER DIAGRAM #1 FROM ATTACHED MANUSCRIPT)
Once our eyes shift
from the individuals to the relationship, then we begin to focus not
only on the attributes of the parties, but also on the qualities of
the relationship. And one quality that is particularly relevant is partnership:
that is, is the relationship characterized by a joint commitment to
the success of whatever venture the members are engaged in? In the case
of the professor/student relationship, is that relationship characterized
by a joint commitment to the success of the educational venture?
The Responsibility Dance
It may seem eminently
reasonable for professor and student to be in partnership with one another,
to be jointly committed to the success of their educational venture;
yet, that is not how it often goes in the professor/student relationship
or in most other Provider/Customer relationships. A more familiar pattern
is the responsibility dance in which responsibility for success resides
primarily, if not exclusively, with Provider (in this case, the professor)
and minimally, if at all, with the Customer (here the student). Provider
is responsible, Customer not responsible.
(THE
EDITORS: INSERT DIAGRAM #2 FROM ATTACHED MANUSCRIPT)
When this responsibility
dance occurs, the relationship becomes one of non-partnership; yet the
absence of partnership in and of itself may not be a problem. The Provider
professor may take up all responsibility for the course and discharge
it brilliantly; and the Customer students who have felt no responsibility
for the course still emerge delighted customers. No problem. (One could
rightfully argue that this is only true in the short term, but that
there is a gradual and mutual disabling process that goes on the longer
that non-partnership form continues.)
(THE
EDITORS: INSERT DIAGRAM #3 FROM ATTACHED MANUSCRIPT)
But now let us observe
what happens in this non-partnership pattern when delivery is less than
satisfactory. Our non-responsible student becomes the Righteously Screwed
Customer ("You, Professor, were responsible; I was entitled; and
you let me down.") And our responsible professor becomes the Unfairly
Judged Provider ("I gave it my best; I taught a good course; your
reaction is unfair.")
(THE
EDITORS: INSERT DIAGRAM #4 FROM ATTACHED MANUSCRIPT)
The student can,
with impunity, blame the professor for the failure of the course, but
the professor cannot blame the student, for if the responsibility dance
is on, it is clear that the professor alone is responsible. (The grade
the professor gives the student is an evaluation of the degree of mastery
of the course content not of the student's contribution to partnership.)
We Are Stuck With Relationship, But Do We Want Partnership?
Democracy is not
a requirement in the classroom. There have been many great professors
who have taught many great courses in which there have undoubtedly been
many disgruntled students, yet no one would have thought it necessary,
much less appropriate, to have the students evaluate the professors.
The teacher taught and the student coped as best one could. But once
we choose democracy in the classroom, then the game shifts and partnership
becomes relevant. Now we are in this together and, under these conditions,
it is as valid for the professor to evaluate the student's contribution
to partnership as it is for the student to evaluate the professor's.
(THE
EDITORS: INSERT DIAGRAM #5 FROM ATTACHED MANUSCRIPT)
The professor's
evaluation of the student's contribution to partnership might comprise
such statements as:
You were a failure
as a customer.
Where were your complaints during the course, when we still might have
had the opportunity to deal with them?
Did you ask me to clarify points you didn't understand?
Did you speak up when you thought student conversations were dragging
on too long?
Did you suggest topic areas that you expected to be covered and which
were not?
And so on.
Professor/student
is a relationship. Our choice is whether or not to create it as a partnership
relationship. As a professor I may not want that partnership; like many
providers, I may not welcome the intrusion of the customer into what
I consider my business. And as a student, I may not welcome the opportunity
of partnership; like many customers, I may be firmly rooted in my entitlement
and not feel that it is my business to help the provider deliver the
service I expect. What can drive us toward partnership would be our
common interest in creating the best possible product, service, learning
experience. And if our choice is not to work on building partnership
into the relationship, then we can expect occasional if not frequent
bouts of "unfairly judged" and "righteously screwed."
Many of us work
on creating partnership in our classrooms by having an initial contracting
session with our students, clarifying in that process what each of us
expects from the other. Yet we also know that relationship is an ongoing
process and if our focus is on partnership, then we need to come back
regularly to examine that relationship. Is the Provider professor opening
him/herself to evaluations, suggestions, reactions from the students;
and is the Customer student making it clear to the professor what is
and is not working in that process? Are we jointly committed to the
success of this educational venture?
More
Insights From Barry Oshry In Our Archives
Spaces
The Witches Brew
The Case of The Unfairly
Judged Professor
Only Connect
A Systems View of
Performance Evaluation
Sound of The Old Dance
Shaking
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