Teaching Evaluations and Records
My teaching philosophy is focused on making meaningful connections with students, equipping them with pragmatic, real-life skills. I aim to prepare students to be better professionals, innovative entrepreneurs and informed voters, with a sharp critical mindset. To achieve this, I connect them to real-world events, such as current news, history and business cases. If you want to know more about the examples I use, click here.
At the University of Tennessee, I had the opportunity of serving as the sole instructor for "Principles of Microeconomics (ECON-211)” and "Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON-311)”. Earlier, at the University of Delaware, I was the sole instructor for four sections of "Economic Issues and Policies (ECON-100)" over two semesters. Here’s a synopsis of my latest teaching evaluations:
Criteria
University
My Scores
The instructor contributed to your understanding of the content.
4.39
4.34
The instructor created an atmosphere that invited you to seek
additional help.
4.68
4.36
The instructor responded to your inquiries about the course (e.g.,emails, texts, phone calls) within a reasonable timeframe.
4.69
4.40
The instructor created a respectful and positive learning environment.
4.68
4.49
The instructor provided useful feedback on assignments.
4.23
4.19
The course challenged you to learn something new.
4.45
4.44
The class sessions were well organized.
4.29
4.29
The course materials enhanced your learning in this course.
4.26
4.29
The second column displays my scores, which are the average across 31 respondents out of the 60 students enrolled in my last course (ECON-311, Spring 2023). The third column displays the University’s average, which covers 76,901 respondents (Spring 2023).You can find other evaluations of my teaching experience at University of Delaware and at University of Tennessee at Rate My Professors. Lastly, here are some selected qualitative evaluations:
"Professor Garcez is a fantastic professor who really had a firm understanding of the content he was teaching. He was funny, engaging, and very supportive of my overall experience with this course."
"Mr. Garcez is an amazing professor and the best I've had at UT or elsewhere. He makes the class fun and engaging, as well as explaining the material in a logical and easy to understand format. I can't say enough good things about Lucas, I don't think I ever left his class in a bad mood."
"Make sure the class understands I guess, They check in but even after their explanation we still don't understand."
"I think that the energy the professor brought to the class was a big factor in my ability to learn, especially that early in the morning. He responded quickly to emails and gladly went over assignments with us so that we understood the answer and why the answer was what it was."
"Lucas eased my nerves about Micro Economics, and he is very relatable and makes this course bearable. I am really thankful I had him as a professor, and I would definitely recommend his course to other students."
"I thought the class was overall very good. It was a little more challenging than I was expecting but overall was good."
"I really liked how the exams throughout the semester were waited and if you didn't do to well on it that it wouldn't effect your grade horribly. The only thing that I would change is to make the final project grade worth 25% and not 30% as it puts a lot of pressure on students who are on the edge of a B or an A when they have other exams and classes. Other than that I thought the class was very good and the professor was an amazing teacher. Professor Garcez was a great instructor and I hope he continues his endeavors in teaching."
"What a fantastic guy he acknowledges when he is wrong adapts to the needs of the students and is unbelievably understanding. He cares about his students and wants the best for them. if you try and give him effort you will get an A in this class. Just one of the best professors I ever had at thecollege level. Brings humor into class as well. GREAT!."
"Professor Garcez is incredibly nice and helpful in every way he can be. He really wants to help his students learn rather than focus on a number grade. This is very helpful to me. He is also so kind in his emails and always writes "kind regards". Any question you have, he is very excited and happy to answer. In the 8am class, he is always very energized and a positive human. I love professor Garcez."
"He was a very fun and engaging professor. I loved how he would open his classes with a very enthusiastic HELLO! It definitely made 8 a.m.s much more bearable. Dr. Lucas Garcez, was very kind and respectful and I truly gained a lot and learned from his class."