TEACHERS UNDER REVIEW SHOULD STUDENTS HAVE A SAY?___#68

Most schools have students be evaluated by teachers in order to measure their progress and be disciplined if they are not following the rules. Most teachers grade their students’ work, correct any mistakes that they made, and discipline students if they have not followed the rules. However, in most schools teachers are evaluated by administrators but rarely are students asked to evaluate their teachers.

Should students be allowed to evaluate their teachers?

Yes, for several reasons. For one, students are always present in class. Hence, they are best to know whether a teacher is effective or not. Even though a teacher may think that he or she is doing a great job, the students are the ones who are constantly exposed to the teacher’s methods of imparting knowledge. If for instance, a teacher arrives late in class or fails to explain lesson properly, the students will definitely know about it. Thus, their feedback would be very useful for the school to know.

Allowing students to rate their teachers can motivate teachers to prepare for class and be more responsible in their work. Since the teachers know that the students will be rating them, they will try their best to be serious in order to get a good mark from their students.

One more negative aspect is that the students’ opinions may not always be objective. A student who has just been punished by a teacher or hasn’t received the grade he expected, can express his discontent by giving the teacher a low score, even if he is a good teacher. A student can also evaluate a teacher based on his/her attitude towards a subject, rather than the teacher’s professionalism and efforts in class.

The assessment by students can also fill teachers with fear. If they know how they are ranked by their students, they might give too many points to every assignment in order to receive high ratings. They might even refrain from correcting their students.

It is wise to hold such evaluations in a wise manner. By making the evaluations anonymous, by asking students for the reasons behind their scores, the school management can handle such evaluations in a mature manner and make good use of them.

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