Conversations about Course Ratings: Encouraging Faculty to Make Changes

Talking with faculty about end-of-course ratings is generally a high-stakes conversation where merit raises, promotions, or permanent contracts are on the line or at least hovering in the background of the exchange. Most chairs, program coordinators, or division heads would like to use the conversation for more formative purposes—to engage the faculty member in an exploration of how their teaching is going and where it might be improved. Most faculty would like to use the exchange for more summative purposes—to create an overall favorable impression of their teaching.