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36-672: They are a means to produce feedback which the teacher and school can use to assess their quality of instruction. The process of (a) gathering information about the impact of learning and of teaching practice on student learning, (b) analyzing and interpreting this information, and (c) responding to and acting on the results, is valuable for several reasons. They enable instructors to review how others interpret their teaching methods. The information can be also used by administrators, along with other input, to make summative decisions (e.g., decisions about promotion, tenure, salary increases, etc.) and make formative recommendations (e.g., identify areas where

72-460: A faculty member needs to improve). Typically, these evaluations are combined with peer evaluations, supervisor evaluations, and results of student’s test scores to create an overall picture of teaching performance. Course evaluations are implemented in one of two ways, either summative or formative . Course evaluation instruments generally include variables such as communication skills, organizational skills, enthusiasm, flexibility, attitude toward

108-431: A high point value. Examples of summative assessments include: a midterm exam, a final project, a paper, a senior recital, or another format. Summative assessment is used as an evaluation technique in instructional design, It can provide information on the efficacy of an educational unit of study. Summative evaluation judges the worth or value of an educational unit of study at its conclusion. Summative assessments also serve

144-480: A majority of teachers believe that a teacher's raising the level of standards and/or content would result in worse SETs for the teacher, and that students in filling out SETs are biased in favor of certain teachers' personalities, looks, disabilities, gender and ethnicity. The evidence that some of these critics cite indicates that factors other than effective teaching are more predictive of favorable ratings. In order to get favorable ratings, teachers are likely to present

180-475: A number of possible explanations for this finding, including that instructors with higher SET scores may have concentrated their teaching on the common examinations in the course rather than giving students a deeper understanding for later courses. Hamermesh and West (2005) find that students at the University of Texas at Austin gave attractive instructors higher SET scores than less attractive instructors. However,

216-466: A paper version or more detailed, using branching question technology to glean more information from the student. Both ways allow the student to be able to provide feedback. This feedback is to be used by teachers to assess the quality of their instruction. The information can also be used to evaluate the overall effectiveness of a teacher, particularly for tenure and promotion decisions. Formative evaluation typically occurs when changes can take place during

252-533: A university degree of slight intellectual substance, which the student earned by "simply stacking up numbers on Mickey Mouse courses, is not acceptable". In Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1991, 2002), John Taylor Gatto presented speeches and essays, including "The Psychopathic School", his acceptance speech for the 1990 New York City Teacher of the Year award, and "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher", his acceptance speech upon being named as

288-418: Is the assessment of participants in an educational program. Summative assessments are designed both to assess the effectiveness of the program and the learning of the participants. This contrasts with formative assessment which summarizes the participants' development at a particular time to inform instructors of student learning progress. The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at

324-551: Is the difference between the grades students expect to receive and their cumulative GPA that is the relevant variable for obtaining favourable course evaluations. Another paper by Carrell and West (2010) use a data set from the U.S. Air Force Academy where students are randomly assigned to course sections (reducing selection problems). It found that calculus students got higher marks on common course examinations when they had instructors with high SET scores but did worse when they took later courses requiring calculus. The authors discuss

360-458: The science fiction short story " The Marching Morons " (1951), by Cyril M. Kornbluth which also features a modern-day protagonist in a future dominated by low-intelligence persons. Moreover, the novel Brave New World (1931), by Aldous Huxley , discussed the ways a utopian society was deliberately dumbed down in order to maintain political stability and social order by eliminating complex concepts unnecessary for society to function (e.g.,

396-681: The New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991. Gatto writes that while he was hired to teach English and literature, he came to believe he was employed as part of a social engineering project. The "seven lessons" at the foundation of schooling were never explicitly stated, Gatto writes, but included teaching students that their self-worth depended on outside evaluation; that they were constantly ranked and supervised; and that they had no opportunities for privacy or solitude. Gatto speculated: Was it possible, I had been hired, not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy, on

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432-775: The Savage tries reading Shakespeare to the masses and is not understood). More malevolent uses of dumbing down to preserve the social order are also portrayed in The Matrix , Nineteen Eighty-Four and many dystopian movies. The social critic Paul Fussell touched on these themes ("prole drift") in his non-fiction book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (1983) and focused on them specifically in BAD: or, The Dumbing of America (1991). A compilation of essays by philosophers, politicians, artists and thinkers titled Dumbing Down

468-478: The UK Minister for Universities, Margaret Hodge , criticised Mickey Mouse degrees as a negative consequence of universities dumbing down their courses to meet "the needs of the market": these degrees are conferred for studies in a field of endeavour "where the content is perhaps not as [intellectually] rigorous as one would expect, and where the degree, itself, may not have huge relevance in the labour market": thus,

504-494: The aim of measuring all teachers on the same criteria to determine the level of their performance. In this context, summative assessment is meant to meet the school or district's needs for teachers' accountability. The evaluation usually takes the shape of a form and consists of check lists and occasionally narratives. Areas evaluated include classroom climate , instruction, professionalism, planning and preparation. Methods of summative assessment aim to summarize overall learning at

540-402: The authors conclude that it may not be possible to determine if attractiveness increases the effectiveness of an instructor, possibly resulting in better learning outcomes. It may be the case that students pay more attention to attractive instructors. Meanwhile, a 2017 lawsuit was filed on grounds of xenophobic discrimination in course evaluations at the University of Kansas , with Peter F. Lake,

576-474: The completion of the course or unit. Dumbing down Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education , literature , cinema , news , video games , and culture . Originating in 1933, the term "dumbing down" was movie-business slang, used by screenplay writers, meaning: "[to] revise so as to appeal to those of little education or intelligence". Dumbing-down varies according to subject matter, and usually involves

612-456: The content which can be understood by the slowest student and consequently the content has been affected. Quantitative fields tend to receive lower student evaluations. Many of those who are critical of SETs have suggested that they should not be used in decisions regarding faculty hires, retentions, promotions, and tenure. Some have suggested that using them for such purposes leads to the dumbing down of educational standards. Others have said that

648-540: The course of the semester. The use of a 'Stop, Start Continue' format for student feedback has been shown to be highly effective at generating constructive feedback for course improvement. At the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Vienna , Twitter was used for formative course evaluation. Summative student evaluations of teaching (SETs) have been widely criticized, especially by teachers, for not being accurate measures of teaching effectiveness. Surveys have shown that

684-443: The course of the unit. Secondly, a summative assessment must be reliable: the results of the assessment should be consistent. In other words, the assessment should be designed to be as objective as possible, though this can be challenging in certain disciplines. Summative assessments are usually given at the end of a unit and they are usually high stakes with the grade being weighed more heavily than formative assessments taken during

720-414: The current semester, although many institutions consider written comments on how to improve formative as well. Typically this form of evaluation is performed by peer consultation. Other experienced teachers will review one of their peer’s instructions. The purpose of this evaluation is for the teacher to receive constructive criticism on teaching. Generally, peer teachers will sit in on a few lessons given by

756-483: The diminishment of critical thought by undermining standard language and learning standards , thus trivializing academic standards, culture, and meaningful information, as in the case of popular culture . In the late 20th century, the proportion of young people attending university in the UK increased sharply, including many who previously would not have been considered to possess the appropriate scholastic aptitude. In 2003,

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792-698: The director of Stetson University 's Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, suggesting this is no isolated incident. The empirical economics literature is in sharp contrast to the educational psychology literature which generally argues that teaching evaluations are a legitimate method of evaluating instructors and are unrelated to grade inflation . However, similar to the economic literature other researchers outside of educational psychology have offered negative findings on course evaluations. For example, some papers have examined online course evaluations and found them to be heavily influenced by

828-548: The end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark. Summative assessments may be distributed throughout a course or often after a particular unit (or collection of topics) . Summative assessment usually involves students receiving a grade that indicates their level of performance. Grading systems can include a percentage, pass/fail, or some other form of scale grade. Summative assessments are weighed more than formative assessments . Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have

864-399: The face of it, but slowly, I began to realize that the bells and confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think, and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior. In examining

900-465: The grades instructors assign but are unrelated to learning outcomes once grades are controlled for. Others have also found a positive relationship between grades and SET scores but unlike Weinberg et al. (2009) do not directly address the relationship between SET scores and learning outcomes. A paper by Krautmann and Sander (1999) find that the grades students expect to receive in a course are positively related to SET scores. Isely and Singh (2005) find it

936-488: The instruction. Then they move on to areas that need improvement. Next the instructor will make suggestions for improvement and receive feedback on those ideas. Student feedback can be an important part of formative evaluation. Student evaluations are formative when their purpose is to help faculty members improve and enhance their teaching skills. The teachers may require their students to complete written evaluation, participate in ongoing dialogue or directed discussions during

972-414: The instructor’s attractiveness and willingness to give high grades in return for very little work. Another criticism of these assessment instruments is that largely the data they produce are difficult to interpret for purposes of self- or course-improvement, given the number of variables that can affect evaluation scores. Finally, paper based course evaluations can cost a university thousands of dollars over

1008-407: The purpose of evaluating student learning. In schools, these assessments varies: traditional written tests, essays, presentations, discussions, or reports using other formats. There are several factors which designers of summative assessments must take into consideration. Firstly, a summative assessment must have validity I.e., it must evaluate the standards or learning objectives that were taught over

1044-492: The seven lessons of teaching, Gatto concluded that "all of these lessons are prime training for permanent underclasses , people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius". That "school is a twelve-year jail sentence, where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school, and win awards doing it. I should know." In France, Michel Houellebecq has written (not excluding himself) of "the shocking dumbing-down of French culture and intellect as

1080-414: The student, teacher – student interaction, encouragement of the student, knowledge of the subject, clarity of presentation, course difficulty, fairness of grading and exams, and global student rating. Summative evaluation occurs at the end of a semester, usually a week or two before the last day of class. The evaluation is performed by the current students of the class. Students have the option to reflect on

1116-429: The teacher and take notes on their methods. Later on the team of peer teachers will meet with the said teacher and provide useful, non-threatening feedback on their lessons. The peer team will offer suggestions on improvement, which the said teacher can choose to implement. Peer feedback is given to the instructor typically in the form of an open session meeting. The peers first reflect on the qualities that were good in

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1152-472: The teachers’ instruction without fear of punishment because course evaluations are completely confidential and anonymous. This can be done in one of two ways; either with a paper form or with online technology. Typically, in a paper based format, the paper form is distributed by a student while the teacher is out of the room. It is then sealed in an envelope and the teacher will not see it until after final grades are submitted. The online version can be identical to

1188-429: The typical way SETs are now used at most universities is demeaning to instructors and has a corrupting effect on students' attitudes toward their teachers and higher education in general. The economics of education literature and the economic education literature is especially critical. For example, Weinberg et al. (2009) finds SET scores in first-year economics courses at Ohio State University are positively related to

1224-839: The unit. Many educators and school administrators use data from summative assessments to help identify learning gaps. This information can come from both summative assessments taken in the classroom or from district-wide, school-wide or statewide standardized tests . Once educators and administrators have student summative assessment data, many districts place students into educational interventions or enrichment programs. Intervention programs are designed to teach students skills in which they are not yet proficient in order to help them make progress and lessen learning gaps while enrichment programs are designed to challenge students who have mastered many skills and have high summative assessment scores. Summative assessment can be used to refer to assessment of educational faculty by their respective supervisor with

1260-605: The years, while an electronic survey is offered at minimal cost to the university. Another concern that has been raised by instructors is that response rates to online course evaluations are lower (and therefore the results may be less valid) than paper-based in class evaluations. The situation is more complex that response rates alone would indicate. Student-faculty engagement is offered as an explanation, where course level, instructor rank, and other variables lacked explanatory power. Summative assessment Summative assessment , summative evaluation , or assessment of learning

1296-479: Was recently pointed out, [2008] sternly but fairly, by Time magazine". The science fiction film Idiocracy (2006) portrays the U.S. as a greatly dumbed-down society 500 years in the future, in which low culture and philistinism were unintentionally achieved by eroding language and education coupled with dysgenics , where people of lower intelligence reproduced faster than the people of higher intelligence. Similar concepts appeared in earlier works, notably

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