The teacher as target
Student surveys expose teachers to anonymous aggression, they discriminate against women and the results say nothing about the quality of education. "That creates an unsafe working climate."
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'The teacher often gave the impression that she herself was poorly informed about the material and sometimes I got the impression that she had no idea what she was talking about.' Marleen Keijzer quotes a comment that a second-year student made about her on an evaluation form. "Another student wrote that I come across as derogatory and make fun of students." Out of the blue, but the comments moved her nonetheless, says Keijzer, who has enjoyed teaching mathematics lectures at TU Delft for more than thirty years. “On the bike home I thought: This can't be about me. I don't laugh at students, that's not me. But it still had a bad day. ”
On the bike home I thought: This can't be about me
Awakening from unfounded criticism that students spew on the questionnaires intended to evaluate education, it plays a broad role in higher education. Dissatisfied students use the anonymous surveys to flush their bile in a blunt way and the teacher is outlaws. Hurtful remarks about their lack of didactic and substantive qualities are supplemented by critical reviews of clothing, appearance or their English accent.
“There are also convincing responses, but there are students who take their frustrations out on the teacher,” says Coba van der Veer, teacher training teacher at the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede and sector manager at the higher professional education (HBO). AOb. She not only gets to see the comments on her own performances, but also the comments that her colleagues receive. "Sometimes a teacher is really razed to the ground."
Anonymous surveys fuel distrust between student and teacher
“Very recognizable”, says Marijtje Jongsma, senior lecturer at Radboud University and sector manager at the AOb. “I have been teaching the same course for twenty years that is always very well assessed, but every year there are one or two students with very vicious criticism. That makes me sleep badly for a week. And then the worst attacks are filtered out. "
The surveys cause social insecurity, say the teachers. “It is anonymous criticism that we cannot defend against,” says Keijzer. “Experienced teachers of course know that you should take those student evaluations with a pinch of salt, but you will only be a novice teacher. Then you stop teaching immediately, right? "
Experienced teachers know that you should take these evaluations with a grain of salt
“There is no adversarial process, students can make all kinds of claims with impunity. That is ruining the working climate ”, says Jongsma. "These anonymous surveys fuel the mistrust between student and teacher." “There are nonsensical comments. For example: this profession was of no use to me, I have never been there, ”says Van der Veer. "I want to take students seriously, but it is difficult this way."
A teacher should be able to handle criticism, but not be offended
Chocolate cookies
If the surveys yielded reliable information about the quality of education, teachers might still be able to take the rude comments for granted. However, the standard questionnaires on which students give grades for the organization of the teaching, the teaching materials or the content level of the subject are called course evaluations, but rather measure student satisfaction, according to piles of scientific research. Two years ago, three educational advisers from Utrecht University listed the recent insights in a magazine for administrators in higher education.
Students rate a course significantly better if they are given chocolate chip cookies during lectures, is the rather staggering outcome of a 2018 study. And students score higher on sunny days than on rainy days, according to a similar study from 2014. mainly indicates that students are enjoying themselves, but says little about the quality of the teacher. Logical, according to the Utrecht education advisers. A student may be able to say something about the intelligibility and availability of a teacher, but didactic qualities and substantive expertise are difficult for students to assess.
Students rate a course significantly better if they are given chocolate chip cookies
There is more wrong with the standard surveys. Evaluation scores are not related to the learning outcomes, according to an analysis of all available studies in this field from 2017. A high score does not mean that the education is also good. And not nice either: female lecturers are rated worse than their male colleagues, especially by male students. Women score lower on the manner of knowledge transfer and the amount of knowledge they have according to students, even if their level is comparable.
And then there's the notoriously low response. This problem is particularly prevalent with online surveys that yield far fewer responses than written classroom evaluations. Research shows that only very committed or super dissatisfied students complete the digital questionnaires, which of course produces a distorted picture. “That is why we have sometimes put students in a classroom with free candy and cola to ensure that they complete those surveys,” laughs teacher training teacher Coba van der Veer.
“At TU Delft, the response to online surveys is often less than 10 percent, while we still send a lot of reminder emails,” says Marleen Keijzer. "Nevertheless, the result is presented as the students' opinion about a course."
Fixation on numbers
Although the evaluations are not intended as an assessment tool, low grades do have consequences for teachers. “Managers do see the relativity of those scores, but as a teacher you still have to justify yourself,” explains Van der Veer. "If you score poorly a few times, you have to show improvements."
“A bad score always has consequences,” says Marleen Keijzer. “The grades are shared with students and teachers in the program committee, with thirty to fifty direct colleagues and with your program director. These are people who decide whether you will continue to teach a course, whether your course should be overhauled, whether you will receive a promotion or a permanent appointment. ”
Keijzer raised the dissatisfaction with last year's student surveys in the works council of which she herself is a member. The council has unanimously requested the Executive Board to drastically adjust the student surveys. “The surveys trigger aggression through their anonymity, they discriminate against women and the results say nothing about the quality of education. They also come as mustard after the meal, if the course has already been completed. In short, this instrument is of no use to us, ”Keijzer summarizes the Council's position.
“The works council believes that anonymity should be removed,” says chairman of the board Menno Blaauw. “Students can provide very useful feedback, but anonymous surveys do not contribute to a good conversation about the quality of education. Due to the nature of the questions and the fixation on collecting grades, you as a teacher cannot do much with the outcomes. There are more useful ways to ask for feedback. A good comment from a student who has thought about education is worth a lot more than a pile of grades. ”
Fair feedback
Rob Mudde, vice rector of TU Delft, has a different view. “I think it is important to hear all 27 students about education. In the open questions they sometimes give straightforward criticism, but attacks aimed at the person are filtered out by quality assurance staff. Sometimes a nasty reaction slips in between, which is annoying. I am a teacher myself and sometimes come across nasty comments or foul language, but that makes me shrug. They are incidents and for that I do not want to say goodbye to this opportunity to hear all students about education. ”
Mudde also attaches great importance to anonymity. “The teacher is the one who assesses the student and that entails the risk that a student does not feel free to express criticism. This can lead to students not saying honestly what they think of the education, but instead saying what they think I want to hear. We must provide students with a sense of security to provide honest feedback. That anonymity has value. ”
We need to offer students a sense of security to give honest feedback
The vice-rector acknowledges that there is a tension between protecting teachers against unfounded criticism and giving students room to express their criticism. “I also understand that teachers are not served by verbal abuse, but we will not stop with those surveys. We think they are too valuable for that. If I were to abolish them, I would immediately get into trouble with our student council. ”
Mudde thinks that improvements are possible, although he does not yet know which ones. “That is a search for an instrument that gives all students the opportunity to express their opinion, but in which they provide constructive feedback and not blunt criticism. Because a teacher must be able to withstand criticism, but does not need to be insulted. "
Little princes and princesses
"Universities find it very important that their students are satisfied," says Job van Luyken, ombudsman at TU Delft. to be served.” The ombudsman believes that consumer behavior is fueled by the student surveys.
According to him, the problems identified by the works council are a TU-wide issue. “You don't hear about the majority of teachers, but there are regular teachers who are bothered by the anonymous reactions. They have a really big impact, students can really burn off teachers. ”
Van Luyken is not at all against evaluation and students may also give an opinion of him about the education, but the Executive Board can be a bit more concerned about the anonymous' rotten comments' of students' who have been misled and not about the contents go '. "It is of course serious that a moderator must be involved to filter out the inadmissible comments."
That problem should be raised in the student council, he thinks, but that does not happen. “It is filtered out and not discussed. The problem is made invisible. This creates an unsafe working climate. Not so much because of the content of the comments, but because no action is taken when a student crosses the line. That makes it unsafe for teachers. "
