Why we need to stop asking students to evaluate teachers

Picture this…

You move in with a new flatmate. After a few short weeks, you start to notice some things that bother you. She never takes the rubbish out, makes loud phone calls while you’re studying and leaves empty cartons of milk in the fridge. You aren’t the confrontational type so you just roll your eyes and let it go.

Fast forward to a long holiday week away in December. You return to your house to find week-old rubbish, dirty dishes and the heat cranked all the way up. Your flatmate arrives a few minutes later and you lose it. Four months of suppressed feelings get dumped on her at an unprecedented volume and she’s dumbfounded.

See where I’m going with this? Whether it was a housemate, colleague or sibling, whether we were on the screaming or receiving end, we’ve all been there. When there’s not open and honest two-way communication happening regularly (or at least once in awhile) problems eventually blow up because someone reaches a breaking point. Constructive conflict-resolution goes straight out the window — it’s too late for that.

The same can happen between students and teachers, but rather than an outburst, students wait for a more acceptable outlet: teacher evaluations.

Getting student feedback

I’m sure teacher evaluations (or course evaluations) were created with the best intentions. Student feedback can be used for self-improvement, accountability and, in the case of universities or private institutions, to ensure “customer” satisfaction. But instead of being used for good, they seem to have turned into a power struggle between students and teachers, dividing them rather than being used for mutual benefit.

When I joined edurio, I was (still am) excited about the idea of harnessing valuable feedback from students and using it to deliver a higher quality education. I liked that it encourages student empowerment and positive two-way communication in the classroom. Naturally, I started thinking about my own education and suddenly it struck me: this isn’t such a revolutionary idea, I was asked for my opinion… we always filled out evaluations.

And then I remembered the very different reputation that evaluations had as a student. We were excited for a very different reason. And I don’t think much has changed. Here are a few results from a quick search for “excited for teacher evaluations”, “love teacher evaluations” and “can’t wait for teacher evaluations” on Twitter:

You get the idea.

Students and teachers let negative feelings and frustration build up for months and evaluations come right at the end, usually with the stress of exam time and when it’s usually too late to fix anything. Many times, students look at it as a way to get back at a teacher and give them a piece of their minds.

Teachers, on the other hand, may look at it a few different ways. Some may enjoy the opportunity for self-reflection and honest feedback that may help them better engage students. Some think students aren’t qualified to evaluate their teaching and pay no attention to what they say. Others are nervous that negative feedback may lose them their job.

And those feelings are justified a lot of times. I asked a former teacher why we filled out evaluations:

What do you do with them?

We don’t really do anything with them. Supposed to be for self-improvement.

Or if they want ammo to get rid of some people.

What’s the motivation to take evaluations seriously if there is no practical application? Why would you look forward to giving your students the chance to voice their opinions if it might cost you your job?

We need to change the way we look at student feedback.

Changing the conversation

Feedback is an ongoing conversation — or at least it should be. Evaluations done during the last week of the course? That doesn’t encourage communication or meaningful change. On the contrary, it often results in the type of I can’t take it anymore outbursts that would happen in any other environment if you bite your tongue for too long.

But how do we turn all of these negative feelings we have towards evaluations into positive ones?

1. Stop calling them evaluations. Many teachers would argue that their students don’t know what goes into teaching and aren’t qualified to evaluate them. And they’re probably right. We shouldn’t be asking students to give teachers a score, we should be asking them about their unique and personal experience in the classroom and then trusting the expertise of the teacher to adjust, adapt and innovate.
2. Make a habit of asking students what they think rather than giving them a one-time chance to be heard. Survey students the first day of class — or just talk to them! Start things off on the right foot. Check in and see how things are going every few weeks. It shows them you’re listening and can be a huge resource for you to monitor progress, identify issues and have a deeper understanding of your class as a whole.
3. Set meaningful objectives. I had my suspicions that evaluations were not actually used for anything important when I was a student. I would bet most students feel the same. Similarly, many teachers are told they must collect evaluations from all of their students without really knowing why. Surveys are a waste of everyone’s time if there is no concrete objective. Why would anyone take them seriously?
4. Include students in the process. This is a follow-up to 2 and 3. Tell them you will be regularly asking for their opinions. Tell them you want to know how they feel or if they have any suggestions. Tell them what your goal is in surveying them. And show them the results! At least some that you can work on together. They will probably give you more useful feedback if they feel part of a group effort.
5. Do something. It’s all useless if you’re not ready to do something about it. Making some small changes can not only make class more engaging for them, but it also shows them you’re listening and they matter. That’s a positive learning environment to be a part of and will likely make your job easier and their education more successful.

If the only action that has been taken until now in your school is that a teacher is fired for receiving negative feedback — you’re doing it wrong. What if that same teacher had asked students how thing’s were going after one month rather than after a whole term?

What if those housemates had talked about some issues after the first month living together?

My guess is that things wouldn’t have escalated the way they did. More constructive conversations would have happened more often over the course of a few months and whatever led to the final outburst probably wouldn’t even have happened because the problem would have already been addressed.

What do you think?

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 SME programme for open and disruptive innovation under grant agreement №733984.