Evaluation

Shared the same table with Y and TL during the farewell dinner of CSC. Our discussion inevitably fell on to the plan of revising the current system of our teaching evaluation.

For sure the problem began when the university tried to evaluate the quality of teaching of individual academic staff by the students. (We never dreamed of such a thing when we were undergraduates.) Well, there's nothing wrong with this assessment - except the fact that the evaluation was entirely by the students and, at least it appears possible that, the system favours lecturers who are good at telling jokes and giving tips during examination.

And Y, together with LY, was asked to consider how the evaluation could be improved.

Many of the recommendations are workable and entirely reasonable; I shall not elaborate here. The only courageous (as defined by Sir Humphrey Appleby) suggestion, however, is to take a video for one bedside teaching - yearly for each academic staff - for the evaluation by other colleagues within the department.

I gasped before the vibration wave of Y's vocal cord settled. (My face probably turned green - I hallucinated someone asked if I needed some oxygen.)

PS. On a second thought, Socrates would not survive with such an assessment: his tutorials would be nothing but kept firing questions to his students - without even knowing the answer himself !