Assessing my teaching

So the “retreat” that my division begins each year with is over. Monday and Tuesday, we met and planned for the coming school year, and one of the big topics that we discussed was classroom assessment—proving how effective my teaching is. I am expected to be able to show at the end of the semester that students have achieved the objectives that I set for them in my syllabi and if not, how I will teach differently next time. Having been an assistant professor for only two years, I am not in a position to say that I have found the perfect teaching techniques. Far from it, I am constantly thinking how I can better communication a particular lesson, so that isn’t the problem that I have with this assessment talk. My disagreement is that it places the burden of proof on me. There is no sense that a student is also responsible for his or her learning. There is a growing attitude of consumerism in students, who feel that they have paid for their education, which entitles them to sit passively in a classroom while the teacher entertains and shows them how each skill or knowledge component being taught gets them a better job when they graduate. Assessment fits in with that mentality perfectly, but I think this is the wrong model from which to approach education. Don’t get me wrong. I am against the old sage on stage perspective. Tuition gets a student in the door. What that student does with the opportunity to learn is up to him or her.