Poor evaluation by students

There can be a variety of reasons why students give a poor evaluation which include but are not limited to:

• Professor teaches only or primarily using lecture format
• Professor is habitually late for class
• Professor doesn't take time to answer student questions
• Professor is not timely in returning graded homework
• Professor is not willing to discuss the rationale for grades given
• Professor...

Hopefully you can see where I'm going with this. I am a firm believer that everything rises and falls on leadership. If there are concerns on your evaluation the problem may actually lie with you, not the class. Defensiveness prevents many professors with wonderful potential from ever maturing into that potential. A mentor of mine once said the greates indicator of leadership potential is the ability to receive and learn from criticism without rancor. I think this probably applies to the instructor who leads her class. Set the pattern of excellence and then live up to the pattern yourself.