Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Should Students Evaluate Their Teachers?

This article caught my eye because I've often wondered how my students would evaluate me as a teacher. I would like to think they'd only have wonderful things to say about me, of course :) Ben Johnson quoted a few of the evaluations his students wrote which included, "'We need a better instruction that actually knows what he is doing'" (2012). I hope my students wouldn't have things like that to say about me! In this article, Johnson talks about a study done in 10 European countries where students were asked to to explain what they expected from their teachers and how their past teachers rated in comparison to their expectations. The study found that teachers ranked best in being confident and rational, and they ranked lowest at being inspiring. This really stood out to me because most teachers say they want to inspire their students, but that's what some students stated we're worst at?! It seems that student evaluations can really speak to teachers and provide them with suggestions and comments on how to make improvements. Hopefully we won't get feedback saying we should consider switching careers! I like Johnson's suggestion of included non-graded questions at the end of a test where students can leave feedback about teaching style, suggestions for improvement, and more. If we want to know exactly what our students expect, we need to ask!
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4 comments:

  1. gmruffiniMay 9, 2012 at 7:03 PM

    That was an interesting article to read. I found it interesting how students expected and wanted A's and B's, while they graded the teachers so harshly. I was also startled that we were the least inspiring to students. I agree that teachers go into the profession to inspire children and that is sad.

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  2. lewic1cMay 10, 2012 at 3:43 PM

    i blogged about a similar article and feel that it is necessary to receive feedback from our students, it will help us grow as teachers.

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  3. tritillMay 11, 2012 at 5:19 AM

    While I agree that it is good to receive feedback from our students, I have to admit that this article was a reminder of how disheartening that feedback can at times be. I had to help give a senior exit survey yesterday in my role of counselor. The majority of our seniors said that teachers were uninspiring and did not make the subject matter interesting. They also seemed to feel that personally, they did not try their hardest in school. So, I wonder how these things affect each other? In my first few years of teaching, I often asked kids what I could do to improve, what activities they liked best, what activities they hated, etc. I became jaded as more and more kids told me to do more "free time" and that I could improve if I allowed them to watch movies!! Um...I can't use that. So I changed my questions. I said they had to talk about teaching activities. I got fewer responses. It is hard!!!

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  4. jfcorneliusMay 12, 2012 at 6:46 AM

    I think there is a lot of fear out there about hearing what we don't want to hear. That we are not reaching our students the way we would like to. I do like the idea of asking no graded questions at the end of assignments to have the students feedback on our teaching. I use an online classroom environment and I have quite a few students that send me message telling me I am a great teacher but I do wonder why they say it. It was funny I was out sick for 2 days just recently and my students learned quickly how much I do teach them in a day as they were very frustrated with the substitutes lack of ability to help them.

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