75. Evaluating Teachers

In many universities, students are asked to evaluate their professors after each course, but this is not common practice in junior and senior high schools. The system has many advantages to the university, the students, and the teachers, and I believe that these same benefits can be brought to education at the junior and senior high school levels. Therefore, I agree that schools should ask students to evaluate their teachers.

One advantage of doing this is that this kind of feedback can be used to improve courses and teacher performance. The school will have a better idea of what students’ needs are and can then design programs to meet them. Another advantage is that the process of writing evaluations will help the students think seriously about their education and what it means to them. A third benefit is that the students will feel that their teachers and school take their opinions seriously. Writing evaluations will give them some control over and responsibility for their education. finally, when students evaluate their teachers, whether positively or negatively, they will realize that there is always room for improvement no matter what one does, and that we should always strive to better our performance.

For all of these reasons, I believe that student evaluations of teachers would be beneficial to schools, teachers, and students. Of course, the evaluations must be done responsibly, but when the students feel that their views are important and are listened to, I think they will do their best to contribute to improvement in education.