102 evaluating the teachers

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102 Evaluating the teachers
In many schools, the students are asked to evaluate their teachers.
Should schools ask students to do so? In my opinion, this measure is
generally advisable, but not necessarily. Firstly, students are the best
candidates to evaluate their teachers. They are the direct objects of
the teachers' work. No one is more clear about if the teachers are
capable than the students in the course. For example, other faculty
may be able to tell if his colleague is good in his research work, but
he knows little about if others teach well. On the contrary, the
students take lectures, so they know if the professor is a good
teacher. The evaluations from students are more precise than that
from anyone else. So schools should ask students to evaluate their
teachers. Secondly, the teachers have responsibility to their students.
If a teacher is incapable, his poor teaching will obviously affect the
students who take the course. So students should have the right to
evaluate their teachers. In case that the teacher was incapable, the
students should take some measurements to improve the teacher's
performance, or to change another teacher. To evaluate their
teachers is the best way to do so. Thirdly, this kind of measurements
can invoke the potential of the teachers. Were there no evaluation,
some teacher might think there is no difference weather he teaches
well or not, and then will hesitate to work hard to improve his
teaching. This is disadvantageous both to the teacher and to the
students. While, if the teacher is aware that his work is to be
evaluated by his students, and then he will be push to prepare his
lectures better. However, this is not to say that evaluations from the
students are always helpful. In some case, the result of this kind of
evaluation is misleading. I happen to know a teacher in the physics
department, who is giving lectures to some students in engineering

major. Unfortunately, it seems that the students do not
like physics course a little. Although the teacher prepares his lectures
very well, the students feel it boring. So they give a poor evaluation to
the teacher. This story tells us that evaluation from students might be
misleading. In sum, asking students to evaluate their teachers is
generally helpful. But the results from this evaluation should be
studied carefully, in case that they are misleading.