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Student surveys of teachers can be helpful, if done right

I refer to the letter “Do away with student surveys of teachers” (Sept 20, online). While the surveys can have an impact on teachers as mentioned by the writer, I disagree with certain premises of his reasoning.

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Sean Lim Wei Xin

I refer to the letter “Do away with student surveys of teachers” (Sept 20, online). While the surveys can have an impact on teachers as mentioned by the writer, I disagree with certain premises of his reasoning.

He said teachers would be pressurised into getting in pupils’ good books at the expense of their learning. Based on my experience, this may not be true.

In my schooldays, I had teachers whose teaching methods were engaging and not only got them in our good books, so to speak, but also got us to grapple with concepts effectively.

The writer’s implication that unpleasant, tough methods are effective may be a misconception. To claim that getting in students’ good books leads to ineffective learning would be an overgeneralisation and unfair to the teaching fraternity.

With respect to the surveys, they remain a crucial tool in teaching, which has evolved over the years and is no longer a one-way process like in the olden days.

It is imperative that teachers garner feedback on their teaching styles so as to make their lessons better.

As a counter to the writer’s point about the unnecessary consequences of surveys, I suggest teachers do their own surveys for their reference and review, rather than have the school management administer one.

After all, the purpose of the survey should be personal: For teachers to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of their lessons and make tweaks from there. And this avoids the problem of students using a survey for personal attacks.

Such surveys should be used as constructive feedback rather than a performance indicator.

It is hard to genuinely and sufficiently judge the performance of teachers, and certainly not merely on the work they put into school events nor on their students’ examination grades. The fruits of their labours take time to be recognised.

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