New faculty evaluation system

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

A new faculty-evaluation program in place at John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue will allow students to give their teachers feedback and give new teachers more guidance than they may have received in the past, according to John Abbott College director general Keith Henderson.

“It’s been a couple of years in the works,� Henderson said. “It’s been on the college direction’s agenda for some time now.�

Many of the college’s professors have been circulating their own course-feedback forms to students for years, but with so many new teachers entering the CEGEP, Henderson and the teachers’ union agreed it was time to give teachers a bit more support.

“A lot of our founding teachers are retiring, and so we want new teachers to have as much support as possible to be as good as they possibly can be. Not too many colleges have a the policy, so we’re at the forefront in that respect, but basically, this is a way to help teachers be as good as they can be,� he said.

The formal evaluation policy was something the John Abbott teachers’ union agreed had value, not only to young teachers but also to veteran teachers who don’t always get feedback, Abbott spokesman Johanne Houle said.

“The policy was designed to give feedback in a systematic way, and we have found that the traditional model of learning has shifted in a way where feedback from an audience is appreciated. We believe that you never stop learning, even if you are a professor at John Abbott College,� she said.

John Abbott teachers’ union rep Jim Leeke, a longtime political-science professor, said the union wanted the system because new teachers have very little job security and wanted something in place to document their progress as teachers.

“Under the previous collective

bargaining agreement, teachers had very little job security inside of three years, and since then, we’ve had some non-permanent teachers who were in a situation where the college told them if they weren’t satisfactory and they really

couldn’t do a lot about it. Now, teachers get a chance to impress the students and to improve our school’s image as a place that promotes excellence in teaching,� he said, adding that even though many teachers did course evaluations at the end of the semester, no formal feedback was available.

“Students, the college, times and

attitudes have all changed and we have to adjust to it. That’s the purpose of the

system,� he said.