By Jens Dana
While most BYU students settle for end-of-semester evaluation forms, one group of students is amplifying their voice by evaluating professors? teaching skills in the classroom setting.
Through a unique faculty program called Student Consulting on Teaching, students are trained and hired to work with BYU professors on improving the learning process.
?Even though I?m a little fish in the big pond that is BYU, Student Consulting helps me feel like I?m helping to improve the quality of my university,? said student consultant Julia Higgins.
Mac Reynolds, student consultant coordinator, said student consultants use their past experiences from learning under wide varieties of teaching techniques to help professors stay on top of their game
Because the consultants are not enrolled in the classes, they can be completely objective in their evaluations, Reynolds said.
?Most students don?t realize just how much the professors at BYU care about their students,? Reynolds said. ?So many professors are excited about their subjects but just need a little feedback on how to help it come alive for the students.?
The consulting program started 15 years ago on BYU?s campus. About 100 faculty members request student consultation each year, many of which are ?repeat customers,? such as Scott Ferrin, a professor with the Educational and Leadership Foundation Department. Ferrin has used the program since he began teaching eight years ago.
?I think it [student consulting] is one of the best ways a professor can grow or change as an instructor, it shows that you want to improve,? Ferrin said. ?A big part of the success is the nature of the student here at BYU. I don?t know how it would turn out at any other school.?
Student Consulting is exceptionally beneficial for students of all majors, said Lynn Sorenson, student consultant advisor.
?Student consulting is a ?win-win-win? situation all the way around,? Sorenson said. ?The student consultant benefits from this unique relationship with a faculty member. The teacher benefits from the consultant?s feedback and the ultimate winners are the students in the professor?s classes?they benefit from improved teaching and better strategies.?
