Student and Teachers Evaluation - What Are the Ground Rules?

Students and teachers have a very unique relationship for an academic institute like Colleges, Schools and Universities. Teachers were seen as the Gurus, Scholars who imparted knowledge and education to their students, while on other hand students or pupils were the recipients of knowledge by being humble, so that it facilitated in completion of their education in the academic timeframe. There was a lot of respect, trust and discipline inside a classroom and students follow the instructors of their teachers for effective learning. If you look now, education is so important that lots of Colleges, Universities are bringing new programs, new students, and new teachers into their pedagogy. As a result, Education has been made mandatory for all. With new concepts and enhancement, the modern day classroom has become feisty as we see a tussle between teachers and students on various aspects of present time. From very small problems to serious ones students are more savvy and smart because they have technology in their hands and they would want to question on almost everything about their teachers. Teachers also see many faults regarding the behavior of students and try to correct them anyhow. Yes, we get to sniff politics in this fume when discord prevails between the two groups. Parents are also called by the administrative authorities to question a student’s behavior but they simply don’t want to take the blame and they retort back saying their teacher was doing this and that which they found was wrong and then the conflict brews.

We at times have heard this he/she did poorly in class because the teacher was hard to understand. On other side, we are made aware that students attending institutes of higher learning are not there motivated by a strong desire to learn new things nor acquire new competencies. Some students attend College against their will due to pressure from family members including spouses, employers and expectation in economic benefit after graduation. If these are the motivations for entering the college we can see the seeds of dissatisfaction permanently with some aspects of course, professor and also the institution. For e.g they did not like the professors’ evaluation of the students’ work and when a professor criticized the student’s performance such as turning in work late, not turning the assignments at all. If we don’t jump to conclusions over students retort have we ever heard a student confess that he did not do well in a course because he/she didn’t invest quality time in attending class regularly and doing work adequately for achieving good grades? If the water boiled then decision to fire a professor on the basis of student’s opinion would make fair evaluation criteria meaningless. These unfair and unjust actions have almost muddled the future of academic institutes as there is problem almost everywhere.

A memorable teacher and deserving student have one trait in common i.e. “passion”. Teacher’s passion for their jobs, passion for their students, their life, makes each and every day as an adventure for their students. He will never settle for a poor quality. They expect same from their students and anything below that is not acceptable at all. Rather than doing the job of teaching to a class for an academic calendar, their job is to enable students reach their optimum potential. They inspire students and propel to the next level. This doesn’t mean they have to nicest to the students and neither being the toughest. Students should be allowed to grade their teachers to let them know how have they done while looking back on their experiences and find out what is failing in their teaching career and work towards making better learning atmosphere. Behavioral engagement by cooperative participation, conformity to rules of the classroom, self-directedness, perseverance, cope up to stress, attending more to the teacher makes bond between teacher and students inside classroom. Parent’s interaction with teachers by volunteering at school, communicating with teachers, attending functions and College programs, assisting with homework can dissipate any kind of negativity.

For the students, don’t think that taking the lecture is as same as observing a television where you can arrive a little late, take a break in middle of a lecture, side conversations, inappropriate cell phone and laptop usage in class, disregard for deadlines, sniping remarks as this can be easily noticed by the lecturer and can impede from making your progress.