Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

One of my previous DOSes had a habit of going through fresh student feedback and questionnaires and tossing the Japanese and the Swiss German sheets straight into the bin. When I asked him why, he replied that the feedback was as good as useless as it told him nothing. The Japanese never complained about anything, never had a critical remark worth mentioning, while the Swiss Germans were the polar opposite, even to the point of insisting that bad weather was the fault of the administration. At least that was the way of it in that school.

Not sure what cultural foibles were behind these different approaches to feedback, though I'd guess that 'face' would explain a lot about Asian feedback. So, wide open question: are there any specific cultural aspects that influence students' feedback re their classes etc where you work/teach?

[johnslat]

Dear Sashadroogie,

Well, pretty much the usual: if a student doesn't like a teacher (often because the teacher is a "hard marker", won't mark the student present when he/she is actually absent, etc.) there could be derogatory feedback.

Teachers who are "easy" - don't assign homework, "help" students out with grades, mark them present even when they're not - can get positive feedback.

But, of course, not all - or even that many - students play it that way, at least in my experience, thank God.

Regards,
John

[gaijinalways]

The Japanese students here range in extremes in lodging complaints; from not reporting the teacher for not showing up for the first 5 classes until after the 5th time (though this happened a few years ago), to complaints about never using the textbook when it was used every class .

It used to be in Japan that teachers were gods; short of killing your student (and getting caught red handed) teachers had a free pass. Nowadays, forgetting a student's name once can get you on their bad side and may lead to very many negative survey results as that student may try to convince their friends in the same class to comment badly about your teaching.

Or complaints to the admin if the student's grades don't meet their satisfaction, regardless of the lack of merit behind the complaint. In recent years I have gotten the first complaints about Cs where as before students only tried to avoid failing (which some of the unis here still don't allow, mine does ). Now we are required in some cases to give makeup exams or work even when the reasons stated for missing classes are dubious at best.

We have also had parents now coming to confirm if their sons and/or daughters are going to their classes (this is also the most common reason for some students failing, just simply not bothering to turn up). Sometimes it comes down to all the teachers saying the student has not been turning up all term, even while the student is telling their parents how they have been faithfully attending every class, and of course the teachers are out to get him/her.

The admin unfortunately tends to look upon the students as 'piggybanks', and often doesn't want to boot out even obvious bums, as long as they have a few spare coins. It puts teachers in the unenviable position of having to teach students sometimes multiple times for the same courses until students can graduate in a 'speedy' 8 years.

[naturegirl321]

Student feedback has to be taken with a grain of salt. It basically comes down to whether the student likes the teacher or not.

[johnslat]

Dear naturegirl321,

"It basically comes down to whether the student likes the teacher or not."

Rather like the way we tend to elect our presidents, senators, representatives, etc. in democracies.
Facts, qualifications, and abilities are so often totally irrelevant.

Regards,
John

[evolving81]

I know I don't have the experience of some of you so I could be dead wrong. Also, I don't know what the feedback instrument consisted of in this particular case but perhaps the feedback instrument could be adapted to receive positive and critical responses.

[Deicide]

[Justin Trullinger]

And politics too?



J