In school, students’ academic performances are constantly being scored by their teachers. The student’s effort and the teacher’s grading ultimately determine whether the student passes a class or not. However, it would also be helpful for students to provide their teachers with feedback. A teacher’s job is to educate all of their students and prepare them for real-world scenarios, specifically within the workforce, and receiving feedback from students allows teachers to improve on their teaching methods.
Students providing teachers with feedback would be a great opportunity for teachers to really zone in on how they can improve within the classroom. This feedback helps teachers understand some of the flaws to their teaching. The best way for students to express their feedback would be through a brief survey. Students are all balancing a lot of different things between their personal life and school life. They might be more inclined to answer a brief survey that could help strengthen their peers’ classroom environments.
Teachers are evaluated by the principal and judged on their students’ test scores as a reflection of their teaching, but why not ask the students who are spending most of their learning time in the classroom?
Teaching is no easy feat, and teachers deserve all the respect in the world for what they do daily. Nonetheless, feedback from students helps them improve their overall style greatly. Each student is very different and learns differently, so for a teacher to make sure all their students are comfortable would be wonderful.
That’s not to say there aren’t downsides to this idea. For one, some of the students may already have a personal bias for or against their teacher. This could be due to an easy or difficult workload or grading system. Nonetheless, student feedback is valuable enough that it needs to be shared with the teachers. With all that considered, nothing would be more helpful than a student’s honesty and reflection.
We are constantly being judged by higher-ups and people in our personal lives. If expanded among the education system, teachers would know their own personal strengths and weaknesses, and where they need to improve. This would allow for changes to be made to make their class more effective. Now there would definitely have to be some parameters to this, students would only be given this survey/feedback when the teacher wants it. This would allow the teachers to feel comfortable and not constantly judged. However, the benefits of good, constructive feedback would be huge. Teachers already have one of the hardest occupations, and we wouldn’t want this to add any more pressure to their direction.
I think the best way to gather student’s opinions would be in survey form. The survey would be sent out by the teachers and be very brief. The students would have to provide their email addresses for the school organization to see and flag anything inappropriate. However, the survey would be anonymous to teachers and also completely optional for the students.
This would result in not only the teacher’s gain, but also the students too. The teachers would be a better fit for their students and have more of an idea on how to tailor themselves to everyone, while also managing to remain supportive.
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