I'm teaching an undergrad intro class in business and I think I'm bombing. I've always done well with teaching but I don't know if all the stress with my program & research is getting to me. My self-esteem is shot so when I stand in front of the class I feel like crying but it doesn't show--my main problem is that I don't know if i'm too easy relative to my peers---our teaching styles are completely different. my peers want to trick them so the students don't do well. I teach by setting high standards and letting them know that I'm going to be hard, so they work harder & study but then the test is considered'easy' when really they just studied. As a teacher, does this mean I can get low evals from them? I'm dng something different this time by telling them to study hard and they are but I don't know what to say if they tell me the test is too easy?

======= Date Modified 20 Feb 2009 08:55:52 =======
I'm sorry you're having a bad time with the teaching, it can be stressful on top of research.

I think the things you're worried about are two different aspects of teaching, getting evaluated by students, and the level and content of what you're actually teaching them. One's more subjective than the other. How students feed back depends on whether they like you to some extent, your teaching style as well as what you give them in teaching materials, handouts, anything else like that. Some like you and give glowing evals, the odd one may not because they don't like you for whatever reason, but that's life!

Whether or not a test is 'too easy' is an academic issue, related to the curriculum of that course and how you interpret it. It's bigger than the relationship between you and the students, it's assessed in different ways within uni and ultimately HEFCE guidelines. Presumably you include material in your teaching you have to teach for that course, then interpret it as you think best. My students hate the Harvard system of referencing and often struggle with essays, but I'm not going to change all that in the hope that they give me better anonymous feedback. It's a uni requirement and moderated accordingly as part of academic standards. If you make an actual test too easy, will you be departing from your department's expected academic standards and not meeting the requirements of the job? Maybe you can just approach the same content differently and teach it in an alternative way if you think it's not quite right for your class?

People do teach in different ways though, so if your way is working maybe you should not worry so much and carry on as you are. If your students don't fail in droves, walk out of your classes en masse and you get asked back to teach again, you must be doing something right! I think it's partly trial and error actually, teaching's a self-reflexive process for me as I often make little changes each year, depending on what works and what doesn't, and I don't think there's anything wrong in that.

What you're doing is absolutely right, at least as far as I'm concerned.  I work in a department where some staff members give poor advice which appears to the students as if they are being tricked. They absolutely hate it and become distrustful of everyone.  I then have a difficult job convincing them that the advice I give is genuine. I don't see the point in wanting students to do badly. 

When they tell you it's too easy, ask them how easy it would have been if you hadn't helped them and hadn't encouraged them to work. I suspect that if they think about it, they will realise that it's not so easy. I've had to point out to many classes that just because a subject appears easy to understand it doesn't follow that it will be easy to get good marks and that hard work will, in general, be rewarded with good marks. 

I presume that your department has various quality processes that coursework and tests go through at some point, so surely someone would have told you if they thought the tests/courseworks were too easy. You'll also have external examiners who will assess the standard of the work being set so I am sure you would have heard if the work you set is too easy.

You are not a poor lecturer. Teaching is hard and sometimes you wonder why you bother but we all go through times like this. I've just set a coursework for final year students and I have been inundated with some really stupid questions.  The coursework is based on a case study and one of the little darlings told me that it was too much reading to do: the case study is two sides of A4! :p

Keep up the good work (up)