How do you interpret the percentage distribution across the anchors? Is a skewed distribution a good or bad sign for teaching performance? How do any of these results relate to your teaching? Keep perusing, dear colleague.
SKEWED DISTRIBUTION: The overall response pattern shown in the previous blog indicates a negatively skewed distribution of responses, which is the most common outcome and typically a desirable one as well. It occurs when the majority of the responses are A and SA, but there is also a sprinkling of a few Ds and SDs. The extreme SD responses, or outliers, create the skew. Realistically, a few students might mark SD to every statement to express their desire to see you whacked, while the majority of satisfied customers will choose the two “Agree” anchors. These distributions occur in more than 90% of the courses I’ve reviewed at different institutions. It’s rare to receive ratings without any Ds or SDs. Other anchors may yield a different pattern of responses.
DIAGNOSTIC PROFILE: This anchor distribution information provides you with the most detailed profile of responses to a single item. The percentages reveal the degrees of agreement and disagreement with each statement. It is diagnostic of how the class felt about each behavior or characteristic. Examine each distribution carefully to pinpoint your strength behaviors (high percentage of SAs and As) and your weakness behaviors (relatively high percentages of SDs and Ds). You can then consider specific changes in your teaching, evaluation, or course behaviors to shift the distribution farther to the right, in the A–SA zone, the next time the class is taught.
The next blog will examine responses at the item level. Is that info of any value after reviewing the anchor distributions? I will solve that mystery!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment