Student self eval misrepresentation

[lsbeth]

What a great forum!

I'm a nursing instructor, and need some assistance in dealing with student self evaluations. It seems that a few of my students have grossly misrepresented themselves in terms of the mark they have assigned themselves. These students are anywhere from average to very good students, however have assigned themselves near perfect marks in a variety of nursing compentencies.

I'm not quite sure how to deal with this issue without insult or injury.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

[swee2000]

Something similar to the OP's scenario also occurred during the last week of my 2nd semester in the LPN program. Our normal clinical instructor had to abruptly take a leave of absence(the last week) due to a family emergency. Taking her place, was the Associate Dean of the Nursing school/program, whom none of the other students in my group knew, talked to, or had ever formally met, where as I already had the advantage of knowing her as an instructor from when I was in the RN program a couple years prior(long story) prior and before she became Associate Dean. Unfortunately for everyone else, the Assoc Dean was NOTHING like the original instructor, who was typically fun, carefree, and easygoing. In the past, when students would turn in their self-evals to her, most everyone would score themselves high, to which this instructor would also do the same(it was a very rare occasion when she didn't).

Well on the last day, after the Assoc Dean handed back all of the self-evals, she basically ripped into the students about how she couldn't understand why any of them would feel they deserved/earned "5/5s" or even "4/5s" in any area. Basically, she felt that, unless you were God, there would always be room for improvement, no matter who the person was, how long they'd been doing a job/skill, and especially when it came to students. Another words, no one was perfect or flawless at what they did, regardless. Also, when it came to students, her opinion was that they only deserved "1s and 2s" because they were just starting out & way toooo new to the Nursing world.

In all honesty, I don't think I ever saw so many pale, white faces with eyes so huge they were about to pop out of their sockets. For the students who were doing well & guaranteed to pass, their anxiety level turned on at that point. For the remaining students, who were already anxious beyond words because they were struggling & desperately needed a good score on the final exam(in 2 days, mind you) in order to graduate, their anxiety levels went through the roof/off the charts. Luckily, everyone made it out alive. However, I'm sure they will never look at a self-eval the same way again &/or dread having to do them.