Student Feedback
I gave an open-ended survey to two of my 11th grade classes with two purposes in mind. The first was to get a sense of how the class was going for students and how I might adjust my lessons to make them better for these particular groups. The second purpose was to collect data that would help me determine which individual students it would be interesting and worthwhile to focus upon for my inquiry project. Below are the original survey questions and a chart of the students' collective answers.
survey_results.xlsx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | xlsx |
The chart shows all student responses and the frequency with which different students gave similar responses. If a student gave more than one answer for a question, I either grouped the answers into a category (if they were closely related) or counted both answers separately (if they were distinct ideas). The results were varied and interesting, and I attempted to use them to inform the rest of my student teaching.
It is interesting to note that the two most common answers for question 1 were opposites: group work and independent work. That these two answers were so common and so opposing led me to believe that students felt very strongly about both. Because they felt so strongly, I continued to utilize both types of activities frequently for two reasons: 1) so that students could work regularly in ways they found to be both comfortable and useful, and 2) so that they were pushed to succeed in the face of challenging activities they found uncomfortable or difficult. Other common answers to question 1 included taking notes, reading, discussing, and visual activities.
The most common answer for question 2 was doing homework, as I thought it might be. Failing to turn in homework was the biggest reason that my failing students were failing, and it was also complained about by a variety of other students. While I did not stop giving homework, I kept these trends in mind when deciding how much to assign and what type to assign. More specifically, I wanted to make an effort to ensure that all of the most essential activities were being done in class where I had more control over whether the students a) completed them and b) completed them correctly, in a way that would help them learn. Another common answer was focus in class/distraction, which is interesting to consider because one could argue, validly, that the responsibility for improving upon this weakness might be on any number of parties. Consequently, it was difficult to think of a uniform way to remedy the issue of a distracted class. My focus on one-on-one interaction did help me to resolve the issue with individual students, who by ceasing to be distracted also ceased to cause distraction.
There were about nine different answers to question number 3 that were each given by 5-7 students. The most validating of these were students' appreciation of aspects of my personality such as patience, kindness, enthusiasm, and passion. I make a conscious effort to project these traits as often as possible when I teach, so it really uplifted me to know that my effort was recognized. It also suggested to me that this inquiry's focus on one-on-one teacher-student interactions would be a meaningful one, given the number of students that placed value on the personality traits of the teacher.
I followed up later on one specific answer because several students listed it as the most beneficial aspect of my teaching (question 3) and several others listed it as the least helpful aspect (question 4). The answer concerned my ability to explain concepts-- one of the most crucial things for a teacher to be good at. Guessing at the reason for this discrepancy, I imagined that those who listed my explanations as a positive thing were thinking more about my effort and willingness to explain whereas those that listed it as negative were thinking more about the clarity of those explanations. The reason for this guess is that a few of the students did go into detail to say as much, but the majority simply said "explanations." After following up with a few students (one of them was Harriet), I found that students who listed my explanations as unhelpful were thinking more about the beginning of my student teaching and those who listed my explanations as helpful were thinking of my present day student teaching. This clarification helped me to see that I was improving as a teacher in my student's eyes.
Other popular answers to question 4 fell in line with answers already discussed: group work and homework. Many students seemed unwilling to criticize me or my teaching in too much detail. Most simply wrote down activities they didn't like. Several also wrote N/A.
The final question simply asked, yes or no, whether students would be willing to be part of my inquiry project. I used this as an initial means of narrowing the field of subjects I would focus on by first looking at who was willing to be focused upon. I also wanted to look and see if there were any trends as to the type of students that said yes and the type that said no. One trend was that a large majority of my 3rd period said yes and a large majority of my 2nd period said no. This may reflect that students in 3rd period were more comfortable with and favorable of me as a teacher than 2nd, or perhaps that they were more academically driven, or perhaps that they were simply more outgoing.
One interesting way to choose the target students for my inquiry might have been to select students whose written answers to my survey matched up strangely with their in-class behaviors. For example, one student was frequently engaging in side conversations during whole-class discussion. Yet this same student, in answering the question about the least helpful aspects of my teaching wrote, "letting people talk too much."
Ultimately, I ended up choosing three students (Derek, Harriet, and Jessica) from my second period and two (Phillip and Candice) from my third. They were chosen because they were all students I had not paid much attention to up to that point, and they all struggled in some noticeable way. Candice and Jessica were frequently off task in class. Derek and Harriet frequently failed to complete assignments. Phillip never interacted with anyone and had some really strange inaccuracies in his written interpretations of literature. For reference sake, each of these students' original survey responses are available on the next page.
It is interesting to note that the two most common answers for question 1 were opposites: group work and independent work. That these two answers were so common and so opposing led me to believe that students felt very strongly about both. Because they felt so strongly, I continued to utilize both types of activities frequently for two reasons: 1) so that students could work regularly in ways they found to be both comfortable and useful, and 2) so that they were pushed to succeed in the face of challenging activities they found uncomfortable or difficult. Other common answers to question 1 included taking notes, reading, discussing, and visual activities.
The most common answer for question 2 was doing homework, as I thought it might be. Failing to turn in homework was the biggest reason that my failing students were failing, and it was also complained about by a variety of other students. While I did not stop giving homework, I kept these trends in mind when deciding how much to assign and what type to assign. More specifically, I wanted to make an effort to ensure that all of the most essential activities were being done in class where I had more control over whether the students a) completed them and b) completed them correctly, in a way that would help them learn. Another common answer was focus in class/distraction, which is interesting to consider because one could argue, validly, that the responsibility for improving upon this weakness might be on any number of parties. Consequently, it was difficult to think of a uniform way to remedy the issue of a distracted class. My focus on one-on-one interaction did help me to resolve the issue with individual students, who by ceasing to be distracted also ceased to cause distraction.
There were about nine different answers to question number 3 that were each given by 5-7 students. The most validating of these were students' appreciation of aspects of my personality such as patience, kindness, enthusiasm, and passion. I make a conscious effort to project these traits as often as possible when I teach, so it really uplifted me to know that my effort was recognized. It also suggested to me that this inquiry's focus on one-on-one teacher-student interactions would be a meaningful one, given the number of students that placed value on the personality traits of the teacher.
I followed up later on one specific answer because several students listed it as the most beneficial aspect of my teaching (question 3) and several others listed it as the least helpful aspect (question 4). The answer concerned my ability to explain concepts-- one of the most crucial things for a teacher to be good at. Guessing at the reason for this discrepancy, I imagined that those who listed my explanations as a positive thing were thinking more about my effort and willingness to explain whereas those that listed it as negative were thinking more about the clarity of those explanations. The reason for this guess is that a few of the students did go into detail to say as much, but the majority simply said "explanations." After following up with a few students (one of them was Harriet), I found that students who listed my explanations as unhelpful were thinking more about the beginning of my student teaching and those who listed my explanations as helpful were thinking of my present day student teaching. This clarification helped me to see that I was improving as a teacher in my student's eyes.
Other popular answers to question 4 fell in line with answers already discussed: group work and homework. Many students seemed unwilling to criticize me or my teaching in too much detail. Most simply wrote down activities they didn't like. Several also wrote N/A.
The final question simply asked, yes or no, whether students would be willing to be part of my inquiry project. I used this as an initial means of narrowing the field of subjects I would focus on by first looking at who was willing to be focused upon. I also wanted to look and see if there were any trends as to the type of students that said yes and the type that said no. One trend was that a large majority of my 3rd period said yes and a large majority of my 2nd period said no. This may reflect that students in 3rd period were more comfortable with and favorable of me as a teacher than 2nd, or perhaps that they were more academically driven, or perhaps that they were simply more outgoing.
One interesting way to choose the target students for my inquiry might have been to select students whose written answers to my survey matched up strangely with their in-class behaviors. For example, one student was frequently engaging in side conversations during whole-class discussion. Yet this same student, in answering the question about the least helpful aspects of my teaching wrote, "letting people talk too much."
Ultimately, I ended up choosing three students (Derek, Harriet, and Jessica) from my second period and two (Phillip and Candice) from my third. They were chosen because they were all students I had not paid much attention to up to that point, and they all struggled in some noticeable way. Candice and Jessica were frequently off task in class. Derek and Harriet frequently failed to complete assignments. Phillip never interacted with anyone and had some really strange inaccuracies in his written interpretations of literature. For reference sake, each of these students' original survey responses are available on the next page.