Student Reviews of Teaching: Sample Questions

General questions appropriate to faculty members in any discipline

How effectively did this faculty member’s lectures promote student learning? Please elaborate.
To what extent did this faculty member encourage you to seek assistance as needed? Please elaborate.
If you experienced any difficulties or challenges in a course you completed with this faculty member, please describe the steps she took to assist you and the effectiveness of her assistance.
To what extent did the faculty member help you incorporate connections to other disciplines and to daily living into your learning? Please elaborate.
To what extent did the faculty member’s teaching help you develop skills (professional, problem solving, etc.) that will serve you in the future?
To what extent, and in what ways, did the faculty member create an environment in which students were free to ask questions, disagree, and express their ideas in class?
To what extent did this faculty member foster an open, comfortable environment in which diverse opinions could be raised? Please elaborate.
Please describe how effectively the faculty member encourages a free exchange of ideas.
How effective was this faculty member in eliciting a broad range of responses from students during class sessions? Please elaborate.
Please comment on the faculty member’s effectiveness with respect to encouraging students to examine their assumptions and to question their previous beliefs.
To what extent did the faculty member use multiple teaching strategies to encourage the progress of students with different learning styles? Please elaborate.
Please discuss the extent to which this faculty member recognized and responded to your learning needs.
To what extent did this faculty member challenge you to take risks and work in new ways? Please elaborate.
To what extent did this faculty member employ distinctive instructional methods (e.g. oral communication activities and assignments, web portfolios, etc.) to contribute to your learning? Please elaborate.
Please comment on the faculty member’s distinctive contributions to teaching in the department.
What characteristics have you experienced in this faculty member’s teaching that you find valuable in your experiences in the St. Olaf [specific] department?

Fine Arts

To what extent, and in what ways, has the faculty member encouraged or enhanced your involvement in the performing arts?
Please comment on the impact of this faculty member’s teaching on your own technical and artistic development.
To what extent did the faculty member encourage the development of students’ physical intelligence/awareness? Please elaborate.
If you participated in a movement lab session: How effective were the movement lab sessions in enhancing students’ understanding of the subject matter? Please elaborate.
To what extent did the faculty member help you grow technically as a dancer? In your response, please comment on the methods the faculty member used.
To what extent did the faculty member create a musically inspiring environment in the classroom or studio? Please elaborate.
During your lessons, did the faculty member clearly communicate both technical and artistic elements to you? Please comment.
To what extent did the faculty member help you with the technical and physical aspects of singing in a way that you can understand and apply? Please elaborate.
Given the interrelated aspects of music, drama, and poetry in singing, to what extent did the faculty member give adequate attention to each of these elements and their relationship? Please elaborate.
Please comment on the effectiveness of this faculty member’s instruction in studio class in helping you improve your performance skills.
If you have had this faculty member for organ, please comment on the time and attention she devotes to teaching practice techniques.
If you have had this faculty member for aural skills and/or theory, how effectively did the instructor integrate these skills into her teaching? Please explain.
If you have had this faculty member for aural skills and/or theory, please comment on your opportunities in her classroom for practicing presented material.
To what extent did this faculty member create a musically inspiring environment in the classroom, rehearsal space, or studio? Please elaborate.
Assess this faculty member’s ability to convey ideas or images that help to improve sound quality.
To what extent did the faculty member use lesson time effectively? In what ways?
To what extent did this faculty member effectively expose you to a wide range of conceptual and technical uses of various media? Please elaborate.
To what extent did this faculty member encourage you to develop your own ideas and art work? Please elaborate.
To what extent has this faculty member contributed to your confidence in your personal artistic abilities? Please elaborate.
If you have been involved in a theater production directed by this faculty member, briefly describe the educational and artistic experiences of the rehearsal process.
Please comment on the impact of your experience with this faculty member on your understanding of theater.
How do this faculty member’s theatre productions contribute to the college at large? Please elaborate.

Humanities

To what extent did this faculty member expand your knowledge of differing theological perspectives? Please elaborate.
To what extent did this faculty member encourage and facilitate your ability to connect biblical materials to contemporary religious life and thought? Please elaborate.
Please comment on the faculty member’s effectiveness in helping students to consider conflicting philosophical claims and to grapple with the issues raised by these conflicts.
If you are not a philosophy major: Please comment on the faculty member’s effectiveness in making course material accessible to you.
If you are a philosophy major: Please comment on the faculty member’s effectiveness in furthering your skills as a rigorous philosophical thinker.

Natural Sciences and Mathematics

If you completed a course with a laboratory section, and both were taught by this faculty member, please discuss the extent to which this faculty member made connections between lab work and course material.
Please comment on the effectiveness of this faculty member’s instruction in the laboratory.
To what extent does this faculty member help students connect what they learn in the classroom with what they learn in the lab? Please elaborate.

Social Sciences

To what extent has this faculty member’s teaching enabled you to analyze politics within an academic framework? Please elaborate.
To what extent has this faculty member’s teaching prepared you for informed participation in political life? Please elaborate.
To what extent, and how effectively, did the faculty member integrate the study of culture into the content of the course? Please elaborate.