Job Discussion Forums

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

hi
just wondering whether the place you work conducts periodical teacher evaluations completed by students/trainees.
such a system is being implemented here and am interested in knowing wat reactions to expect from other trainers/teachers. what follow ups - if any - are there, post-evaluation, and wat form do they take ?
thnx
basil

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

My school does them at the end of every term. The students fill out a likert-scale questionnaire and then have some time to write comments. In theory, our end-of-contract bonus is loosely based on our performance, but I don't think the school would actually withhold money, because they understand that evaluations might not always be accurate. I enjoy seeing what the students say, but if someone says something bad, I don't always take it as a bad sign--either something to improve on or a permanently disgruntled student.

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go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

I work at a private language school, and the form of our "evaluations" sucks royally. It is not conducted by students OR other teachers, but by parents.

Every quarter of the year, the parents of the darlings we are teaching are invited to sit in on a lesson. They watch, understanding nothing, and then write some comments on a form provided by the school. Many only write "Satisfied", while some go on long-winded paragraphs which can be summed up with the word "Satisfied".

Some parents write truly idiotic things, and many wish for more attention for their own child above everyone else.

The "evaluation" is stupid, useless and potentially embarrassing. I know one mother cried after her son was told off for cheating shamelessly in a game, by hiding the cards they were supposed to be collecting down his pants.

The parents decide after the public lesson whether or not their child will continue to study in my class. Our end-of-year bonus is determined by the number of students who have come to our classes. So: impress many parents - many children will continue English - more money comes my way. So the evaluations do effect my final bonus.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Many years ago I was inspected by a Turkish Ministry of Education inspector. He spoke zero English. I would have loved to have seen the report

Sheep-Goats · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 527

Sheep-Goats · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 527

ContemporaryDog · Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 1477 Location: Wuhan, China

We have three different 'show lessons'. One is usually early in the term, where our headmistress will come and sit in on a class (often without warning). She calls all the FTs to a room at the end of the day and we sit and discuss everyone's lesson.

Then there are show lessons for parents once a term. I have had these on 2 occasions now but have been given no feedback whatsoever.

Finally there are the main show lessons, which our colleagues come to watch, both Chinese and FTs. I find it more nervewracking being watched by my contemporaries than by the parents of my pupils - don't ask me why!!!

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

merlin · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:26 pm Post subject:

I've never seen an evaluation that teachers liked.

Benchmarking sounds like a pretty good theory but trying to get the spirit of the idea through the thick heads of short-sighted (near-sighted U.K.) TEFL administrators is enough to make a person .

http://management.about.com/cs/benchmarking/a/Benchmarking.htm
http://www.benchnet.com/wib.htm