Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

Let’s Stop Relying on Biased Teaching Evaluations with Joanna Wolfe

Nov 30, 2023

Joanna Wolfe, Teaching Professor at CMU, discusses biases in teaching evaluations affecting women and faculty of color. She offers strategies for universities to mitigate biases in student evaluations, emphasizing the need for systemic changes in higher ed teaching.

29:53

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Episode guests

Joanna Wolfe

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Quick takeaways

Student evaluations of teaching are biased against women and faculty of color, hindering innovation.

Customizable evaluation forms and specific questions can mitigate biases in teaching evaluations.

Deep dives

Challenges with Student Course Surveys

Student course surveys are a widely used method for evaluating teaching effectiveness. Dr. Johanna Woof highlights the biases present in these evaluations, showing how gender and racial biases impact instructors' ratings. Despite the documented biases, these evaluations lack correlation with actual learning outcomes, making them ineffective measures of teaching performance.

Introduction

4min

Unpacking Biases in Teaching Evaluations

20min

Improving Teaching Evaluation Processes in Universities

3min

Challenges of Advocating for Teaching Evaluation Improvement

2min

Addressing Challenges in Teaching Evaluation and Focusing on Incremental Improvements

2min

While there is extensive research on the use of student surveys in the evaluation of teaching, the recommended practices are often not utilized. How does this negatively impact innovation in teaching? How do these evaluations perpetuate bias against women and faculty of color? What can we do about it? Today we tackle these questions with Joanna Wolfe, Teaching Professor of English and Affiliated Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, who wrote the January 2022 Inside Higher Ed article, “Let’s Stop Relying on Biased Teaching Evaluations.” Dr. Wolfe offers three helpful strategies that universities can implement to mitigate some of the potential harm that student evaluations can cause.

This is our final episode of Season 7 of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning! We will be back in January 2024 with Season 8, continuing to unpack systems and systemic changes that are needed to improve higher ed teaching and student learning! Happy Holidays to all of our listeners!

Resources

“Let’s Stop Relying on Biased Teaching Evaluations” by Joanna Wolfe (January 2022, Inside Higher Ed)

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Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

Let’s Stop Relying on Biased Teaching Evaluations with Joanna Wolfe

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Challenges with Student Course Surveys

Improving Evaluation Practices

Incentivizing Bias Mitigation

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts