Advance Notice
These days we need to give students a clear idea of what they need to do in order to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they have acquired. While many of us grew up in classrooms or apprenticeships where we did not know how we were being evaluated, that practice does not work for the current generation and does not help students begin to assess their own skills. Providing a lot of information about evaluation in the syllabus and repeating it orally becomes an essential aspect of teaching and preparing students to assess their own performance.

Aspects of Evaluation
While there are many evaluation strategies, the five parts most important to college faculty members include: methods, criteria, feedback, grading mix and recording.

Methods refer to the ways that we review, read, observe or gather data about a student’s work or behavior.

Criteria are the standards against which we evaluate a piece of work, a plate presentation, the quality of service or the information in a paper or test. In many cases, faculty members have moved beyond simple criteria to create rubrics, charts explaining what level of the criteria will produce what grade.

Feedback is the comments on papers, food and performance so that students realize how they compare to some standard.

Grading mix is the percentage weight given to each of the assignments, tests and other methods that a faculty member uses to compute a final grade for the semester.

Recording is the act of keeping notes on performance and various assignments, as well as writing the grades on the appropriate forms—sometimes electronic—and filing the grades in a timely manner.

Feedback
Probably the most significant aspect of evaluation is providing feedback to students on what they do—whether in writing, on tests, in class or while preparing and presenting food. The more often we tell them what they are doing well and what they can do better, the easier it is for them to improve. Without feedback, they do not know what to work on improving

We need to give lots of personal feedback in laboratory and classroom settings as well as a number of opportunities to demonstrate what they know and get comments on it. Some of us do that by using oral quizzes in class; others arrange lots of chances to practice and demonstrate skills in real settings; some give many short quizzes in class or short written homework assignments; others have students grade each other’s homework. All of these strategies can be effective if they are done well.

One of my favorite teaching strategies involves putting key words or concepts on a slide and getting students to explain them, their importance and their relevance. Asking one student for the answer and asking another student to evaluate the correctness of the answer gets them all involved and helps them give each other feedback.

Methods
One of the ways we can inform students about how they are being evaluated involves telling them what methods we will use during the course. The methods might include taking attendance, observing professional performance during class or in a laboratory setting; inspecting dress code or work station; reading tests and papers; analyzing presentations of food, speeches or displays; reviewing sanitation and recycling practices; critiquing blog entries or discussions on Blackboard, Web TV or other software programs; noticing classroom activities and participation; and critiquing food preparation or food presentation.

While most students think of tests and papers as the only real methods, we use a lot of others in the culinary field, and they are important. Therefore, we need to remind students of the methods we are using to conduct evaluations.

In order to use these methods effectively, we must explain both what methods we are using and what criteria we will apply when using them. Since feedback and methods have been the topics this month, criteria and self assessment will be the topic for next month.

Summary
Providing clear information about how students will be evaluated helps them learn to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in ways that are recognized. It also helps them learn how to conduct professional evaluations of themselves and others around them—something important for culinarians. Remember that our behavior as evaluators sets standards and expectations for students that will impact them long after our courses are over. Therefore, we need to consider what we do carefully and explain it clearly.

If you have other ideas or suggestions about evaluation, let me know and I will share them in future Mayo Clinics. Thank you for reading this column.

Fred Mayo is a clinical professor at New York University and a frequent presenter at CAFÉ events nationwide. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..