By Veeda Ware
Toward the end of each semester, Brent Reese starts investigating. Like a determined detective, he visits classes and questions friends in search of his next semester classes. While Reese does his homework to search for a teacher and class he will like, he said posting students'' response to teacher evaluations would help.
'I want to make the best out of my education here at BYU,' Reese said. 'If I could see feedback from a student who took the class previously, I could determine if that professor will be good for me.'
Some students say the confidential teacher evaluations should be open to the student body as well as the faculty and department.
Reese, a sophomore from Spokane, Wash., said his classes this semester would be better if he had known the teaching methods of his professors ahead of time.
'You don''t know how a professor is until usually after the first test,' Reese said. 'By then it''s too late and your stuck in that class for the rest of the semester.'
Reese said the availability to teacher evaluations would give students a way to see how teachers grade, what emphasis they place on course material and how they teach.
'Some students do well with tests, others on projects and papers,' Reese said. 'It would be helpful to know how each teacher grades and pick classes to how you will perform best.'
Mauri Stotts, a junior from Crosby, Texas, works in the Math Education Department on campus. Stotts said she sorts out evaluations for teachers in the department.
'I see copies of the teacher evaluations and notice students will say the same thing about professors year after year,' Stotts said. 'I think if we could see feedback from other students who took the class previously, we wouldn''t waste our time finding a class that best suits our needs.'
Stotts said she was so frustrated with not having teacher evaluations made public she voiced her opinion on the soapbox.
'I got up and said what I had to say,' Stotts said. 'We are paying for teachers that will help us learn, I expect to find out which ones will be able to do that.'
Stotts said she has looked at Web sites like RateMyProffessors.com and ProfessorPerformance.com to see student ratings.
'Those Web sites aren''t as helpful as access to teacher evaluations could be,' Stotts said. 'Most students are just complaining and you don''t get all the details that the evaluations provide.'
Trav Johnson, faculty development coordinator in the Faculty Center, helps provide teacher evaluations for faculty improvement.
'Faculty may receive feedback on every course each semester,' Johnson said. 'In many cases, the evaluations make a big difference. Most faculty pay attention to the evaluations and use them to improve teaching.'
Johnson said the department chairs and deans also have access to teacher evaluations.
'The student feedback is helpful in annual interviews with faculty and instruction improvement,' Johnson said. 'Faculty can see where they are connecting with students and where they need to improve.'
Johnson said there is some concern that public evaluations may cause faculty to focus only on getting high ratings instead of using ratings as a tool to improve teaching.
Some faculty are concerned that if results are made public, the evaluations may be used for purposes other than improving teaching, Johnson said.
Dacia Fowler, a senior from Salem, Ore., said she prefers having teacher evaluations confidential
'Evaluations could turn into a popularity contest,' Fowler said. 'Student course selection might be based on easy classes instead of quality course material.'
Fowler said the teacher evaluations have a breach of privacy attached to them.
'Evaluations are part of a teachers private personal file,' Fowler said. 'You can''t walk into any business and demand to see employee profiles before dealing with them.'
Fowler said students forget they attend college to learn from professors, not to tell them what or how to teach.
'I don''t think students should base the classes they take solely on if they personally like a certain teacher,' Fowler said. 'We are here to learn a variety of information from a variety of different people.'
Fowler said students who choose classes based on easy grades and charismatic professors lose out.
'After you graduate and work in the real world, you will have plenty of bosses and colleagues that are different from you,' she said. 'You learn when you step out of your comfort zone and apply and stretch yourself.'