Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jazzmaster]

I'm looking for any advice, comments, warnings about dealing with student feedback. I want good feedback, so ensure my continued employment, but i don't want to be too much of a pushover.
Anyone prepared to share?

[Lucas]

[World Traveler]

Probably uni if student feedback determines whether employment can be kept or not.

[jazzmaster]

I was thinking of uni students, but if you have something worthwhile to contribute then I don't think it matters what age your students are.

[World Traveler]

Be a good teacher to get the good feedback. (That's the honest/ethical way to approach it.)

[AsiaESLbound]

1. Show interest in their lives by engaging questions like, "how are you today? What did you do yesterday? What will you do this weekend?" and there are tons of things you can talk about to engage them into speaking English without them immediately knowing they are actually working hard on thinking to invent speech, learn more, and listen. During lessons, you can engage them with more questions related to the lesson. Ask and answer really works to connect and get students talking in English because they listen, respect, and work harder if they feel you care about understanding them. Of course kids don't think all this like we adults can, they just respond to what they get from teachers and their environment. Communication using a language isn't learned from a book like it is learned through interaction with people and culture so this is why they hire all kinds of Westerners to teach school in a non-traditional, "fun," manner.

2. Focus on positive re-enforcers like, "Good job, very nice work," instead of critical negative reponses while letting the numerous minor issues such as, "finisheeeeed!" slide by not micro managing anyone or anything works well and also prevents you from over working. They won't stop adding the, "eeeeed," part for nothing because there is some important native Korean phonics rule forcing them to keep saying it regardless how much you teach, explain, and model it to listen and repeat. Over correcting verbal answers and behavior can make them feel bad or fear looking bad in front of peers so they then would fear or dislike you until you stop over correcting or micromanaging. If any fear or doubt, you won't see students learning, putting effort to perform, free speech, laugh, and participate. The good thing is kids are the most forgiving people on Earth as you can make mistakes, learn from them, and put more effort into future classes to carry on. Kids can even be told by a Korean teacher you are a crazy one not to be taken seriously and you can actually recover a month or so later as if nothing happened, believe it or not. Things like that happen if or when a Korean feels pent up anger thinking you made them look bad or feel you damaged their ego. I could say more about a cultural inflicted inferiority complex of nationalism that started many years ago before there was America, but it's a sensitive topic even for Westerners, because it's so hard to impossible to understand. It's nice that young kids don't play this card.

3. Try your best with leveling lesson material, music, activities, and games to fit their age group and ability level instead of just using Western country material and approach for their same age and grade. This is another reason why it's not a traditional teaching job so it's not hugely attractive to most career oriented trained and licensed teachers, but is great for backpackers full of courage of all ages looking to have fun and see others having fun. These students and probably any other in the world have potential just as good as Americans and Germans, but learning a second language is really hard. I would find understanding a class in Korean or French rather difficult and probably flunk what I can do awesomely well using English.

Just some thoughts.

[Stain]

[quote="AsiaESLbound"]1. Show interest in their lives by engaging questions like, "how are you today? What did you do yesterday? What will you do this weekend?" and there are tons of things you can talk about to engage them into speaking English without them immediately knowing they are actually working hard on thinking to invent speech, learn more, and listen. During lessons, you can engage them with more questions related to the lesson. Ask and answer really works to connect and get students talking in English because they listen, respect, and work harder if they feel you care about understanding them. Of course kids don't think all this like we adults can, they just respond to what they get from teachers and their environment. Communication using a language isn't learned from a book like it is learned through interaction with people and culture so this is why they hire all kinds of Westerners to teach school in a non-traditional, "fun," manner.

2. Focus on positive re-enforcers like, "Good job, very nice work," instead of critical negative reponses while letting the numerous minor issues such as, "finisheeeeed!" slide by not micro managing anyone or anything works well and also prevents you from over working. They won't stop adding the, "eeeeed," part for nothing because there is some important native Korean phonics rule forcing them to keep saying it regardless how much you teach, explain, and model it to listen and repeat. Over correcting verbal answers and behavior can make them feel bad or fear looking bad in front of peers so they then would fear or dislike you until you stop over correcting or micromanaging. If any fear or doubt, you won't see students learning, putting effort to perform, free speech, laugh, and participate. The good thing is kids are the most forgiving people on Earth as you can make mistakes, learn from them, and put more effort into future classes to carry on. Kids can even be told by a Korean teacher you are a crazy one not to be taken seriously and you can actually recover a month or so later as if nothing happened, believe it or not. Things like that happen if or when a Korean feels pent up anger thinking you made them look bad or feel you damaged their ego. I could say more about a cultural inflicted inferiority complex of nationalism that started many years ago before there was America, but it's a sensitive topic even for Westerners, because it's so hard to impossible to understand. It's nice that young kids don't play this card.

3. Try your best with leveling lesson material, music, activities, and games to fit their age group and ability level instead of just using Western country material and approach for their same age and grade. This is another reason why it's not a traditional teaching job so it's not hugely attractive to most career oriented trained and licensed teachers, but is great for backpackers full of courage of all ages looking to have fun and see others having fun. These students and probably any other in the world have potential just as good as Americans and Germans, but learning a second language is really hard. I would find understanding a class in Korean or French rather difficult and probably flunk what I can do awesomely well using English.

Just some thoughts.[/quote

I have never had students use "finisheeeeed" only "finisheeee". If they actually put the "d" on the end, I would probably reward them, despite the Konglisheeeeee.]

[jackson7]

I'm consistently in the highest evals at my uni, and in addition to things mentioned previously by posters, a couple things that come up again and again from my students on the qualitative evals include:

"Thank you for learning my name. It meant a lot."

Learn your students' Korean names, unless they specifically prefer to be called by an English name they may have. It might be difficult, especially if you're not a proficient speaker of Korean, but it goes a very long way towards building rapport with students. Another plus: students know that you know who they are, so they're less likely to skip classes.

"Thanks for all of the feedback! It was great to meet with you one on one."

And ironically:

"I wish we received more feedback."

Give your students as much individual, detailed feedback as is possible. Writing classes make this much more time-intensive, but it's also easier to critique what you see on a page. Your speaking-focused classes may require you to keep notes on students as you interact or observe their discussions, but this goes a long way towards helping them improve.

Finally, the evaluation systems at Korean universities is often in Korean. Your students likely have the option of leaving comments like these, and most probably do. Make sure you have these translated by an office assistant or coworker if you don't read Korean, as they give you great insight into what students like or don't like about your classes. If your school asks students to do a midterm evaluation, you're in an even better position to respond to their (reasonable) requests in time to have a more productive second half of the term.

J7

[matthagwon]

Pay off 51-65% of the students and you'll be fine

[TheMeerkatLover]

The only factor that will affect how students perceive you here is directly related to the grade they think you will be giving them.

Higher grades generally mean higher evaluations.

Lower than expected grades quite often result in 'revenge evaluations'.

All the other commentary above is not nearly as significant a factor as their scores which determine everything in this society.