A colleague once remarked, "When we agitated for student evaluations in the ’60s, we never guessed we were handing the administration a club."
Fulbright grants gave me the opportunity to teach at European universities where students do not rate their instructors. That experience brought home the damaging impact of evaluations. The authoritarian instruction that often takes place in Europe has problems, but students complaining about doing the work is not among them.
At the University of Vienna, I arrived convinced that students would pay full attention only to a class conducted in discussion, so I found it uncomfortable to stand at an elevated podium and lecture. But the students not only listened, they reacted so powerfully that I became fixated on making my next lecture better than the last. I resumed this practice when I taught in Belgium and Germany. The more attentive my students, the more enthusiasm I had for teaching as well as possible.
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