The Course Description: A Semiprojective Technique for Assessing Students' Reactions to College Classes.
It is becoming increasingly common to ask students to evaluate their college courses. Regardless of the purpose for which such evaluation is conducted, there is little debate that students' perceptions of their learning experiences are of general value. There is some uncertainty, however, as to the kinds of data which are responsive to an instructor's need for helpful feedback. Typically, this uncertainty is even greater for instructors who utilize nontraditional methods and whose goals go beyond productoriented cognitive objectives. The authors faced such a predicament when they were considering how to elicit student evaluation of a multisection introductory course in educational psychology required of all students in the College of Education at Temple University. Approximately one-half of the sections of this course had been reorganized to include the utilization of student-directed inquiry procedures. These sections were designed to enable student-led groups to formulate problems of study concerning the teaching-learning process and to seek resolutions to these problems through a planned search of readings, films, tapes, lectures, instructional, and research materials.* In contrast, the remaining sections employed relatively standard teaching methods, although active student participation in class was probably more pronounced than is usually the case.