Embracing student evaluations of teaching: A case study

Student evaluations of teaching are central in the teaching evaluation proc ess. Well-constructed reaching evaluation instruments render valid and reli able information on teaching effectiveness. For this reason instructors, es pecially early in their careers, should view teaching evaluations as an opp ortunity to develop as teachers. Cooley's theory of self-formation frames a n understanding of the importance in taking an active rather than passive a pproach to the teaching evaluation process. This framework provides an appr oach to one's own teaching, as a case study. in this paper, the author exam ines his own teaching evaluations in an attempt to understand what they mea sure and how they may be used to make changes in his own classroom performa nce.