Overview
I was at UW-Madison
from August
1995 through May of 1997. I taught CS302, Intro to computer science in
C++, a total of
8 times. There were 23 sections of the course a
semester on average, each being taught by a computer science TA.
Enrollment was capped at 25
students per section, and a typical section of 302 had about 20
students by the end of the term. The evaluations were provided by the department (sample form), included 8 rated items, and an open-ended section. Six of the eight were questions about the instructor:
- Usefulness of lectures
- Command of material (knowledge)
- Responsiveness to questions
- Enthusiasm
in teaching
- Availability outside of class
- Recommend the instructor to other students
Overall ratings
The following chart
shows my average ratings over the 8 sections for the final question
regarding recommending the instructor.
Detailed
breakdown of all categories
The following table provides a more thorough view of my
evaluation data
from UW-Madison. The eight rows with dates each correspond to a
different section of 302 that I taught. The black numbers are my
means while the red numbers in parentheses are the means for all 302
TAs in that semester. The bottom three rows show the 2-year
means, the standard deviations across all 302 TA evaluations, and
finally the
difference (in standard deviations) of my mean and the overall TA mean.| Date |
Num Responses |
Usefuleness of Lectures |
Command of Material |
Responsiveness to Questions |
Enthusiasm |
Availability |
Recommend Instructor |
| fall
95 |
12
(13.6) |
4.6
(4.2) |
4.5
(4.4) |
4.5
(4.3) |
4.7
(4.2) |
4.0
(4.0) |
4.3
(4.1) |
| fall
95 |
16
(13.6) |
4.4
(4.2) |
4.4
(4.4) |
4.5
(4.3) |
4.9
(4.2) |
4.4
(4.0) |
4.5
(4.1) |
| spr
96 |
14
(13.6) |
4.9
(4.3) |
4.6
(4.5) |
4.9
(4.4) |
5.0
(4.2) |
4.8
(4.1) |
4.9
(4.2) |
| spr
96 |
12
(13.6) |
4.9
(4.3) |
4.8
(4.5) |
4.8
(4.4) |
4.8
(4.2) |
4.6
(4.1) |
4.9
(4.2) |
| fall
96 |
20
(15.5) |
4.8
(4.2) |
4.8
(4.5) |
4.7
(4.3) |
4.8
(4.2) |
4.2
(4.0) |
4.8
(4.1) |
| spr
97 |
19
(12.9) |
4.6
(4.2) |
4.6
(4.3) |
4.8
(4.3) |
4.9
(4.1) |
4.2
(4.0) |
4.9
(4.0) |
| spr
97 |
16
(12.9) |
4.4
(4.2) |
4.3
(4.3) |
4.6
(4.3) |
4.6
(4.1) |
4.3
(4.0) |
4.3
(4.0) |
| spr
97 |
21
(12.9) |
4.7
(4.2) |
4.6
(4.3) |
4.9
(4.3) |
4.9
(4.1) |
4.6
(4.0) |
4.9
(4.0) |
| overall |
16.3
(13.9) |
4.66
(4.20) |
4.58
(4.44) |
4.71
(4.33) |
4.83
(4.16) |
4.39
(4.06) |
4.69
(4.09) |
| stdev |
3.82 |
0.395 |
0.318 |
0.384 |
0.482 |
0.407 |
0.610 |
| sd
diff |
+0.618 |
+1.17 |
+0.434 |
+0.982 |
+1.378 |
+0.799 |
+0.975 |
- My evaluation scores never
dip below the group mean, and tie only 3 times (twice in "Command" and
once in "Availability").
- My sections consistently had more responses than other sections.
- I was about 1 full standard deviation over the mean for Lectures, Responsiveness, and Recommendation.
- Regarding Enthusiasm
for
teaching, I was well over 1 standard deviation from the overall mean.
Open-ended question responses
The evaluation form provided students with an opportunity to answer open-ended questions about their instructors. To avoid a selection bias, I present all answers from my highest rated term (which is below), and in the Pittsburgh section, responses from my lowest rated semester are shown.These are student responses when asked to comment on the instructor's pace, teaching style, etc.
- I think Chad is an excellent instructor. He explains the material clearly and from the perspective of someone who understands the process of learning.
- Chad was an excellent TA, he was very enthusiastic and used great examples that were easy to understand. He was always more than willing to offer help on anything (programs, concepts from lecture, etc.)
- Chad has a great style of teaching - he is certainly an asset to the department.
- H. has a really awesome sense of humor that really adds to the attitude of a class that otherwise could get boring.
- Pace is fast, but I knew that coming in.
- good
- good
- He did a good job for the amount of material expected to be covered.
- The pace was just right, all materials corresponded to program assignments. I enjoyed having H. as a T.A. this semester. His incorporation of humor and understanding of students made the class pleasurable.
- H. is an excellent teacher. I feel very confident with my knowledge of C++, well as much as we covered in class.
- The instructor makes the learning more fun.
- He was the only instructor I had here that was an actual teacher. So that I was not forced into teaching myself.
- Good pace.
- Satisfactory.
- Web page is great. Very enthusiastic.
- H. is a great instructor - makes 1:15 of boring CS into as much fun as it can be.
- Chad was a great teacher. Enthusiastic, helpful, always answered questions.
- Thank you for a very fun class. Your bits of humor + overall style help a lot especially in a power lecture. Thanks again for all your help + good luck in Penn or is it Pitt?
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