Student Questionnaire

As I said earlier, I ran a student questionnaire last week with an Engl 10H class.  It was actually the teacher who asked me if I’d like to do it- he thought it might be something useful to not only me, but also my fellow student-teachers (all of you awesome people!)  He said he’d leave the room, I’d go over what I wanted them to do, read out the questions while they wrote out responses, and then I’d collect them and go over them later on.  I made sure to emphasize (and the teacher wanted me to as well) that they were anonymous, so I wanted their honest opinions and answers.

The first three questions were about teachers, the fourth was about bullying (it came out pretty even on whether or not they thought bullying was a problem- but leaned slightly more to NO), and the fifth question asked them to list the last book they read. I’m happy to report that only two of them (out of 27) said they couldn’t remember/don’t read outside of school. 

Like I also said in an earlier post, I’m going to post the full list of the survey answers in an e-portfolio entry (then link it on here), but for the first 3 questions I asked, here are the top-rated answers:

1) What do teachers do (or have done) that you really like?

•  Show films that are relevant to the topic (17)

·        In-class discussions- both in partners and groups (11)

·        Mix up the activities (4)

2) What do teachers do (or have done) that you really dislike?

·        Making us present in front of the class (10)

·        Lecturing for the entire period (9)

·        Giving work at the end of the class- we would like time in class to do it (6)

3) What do you think makes a great teacher?

·        Having a sense of humour (9)

·        Diverse teaching techniques/methods (6)

·        Easily approachable (4)

·        Allows us to express ideas and doesn’t put them down (4)

·        Keeps monotonous questions to a minimum, and favouring discussions instead (4)

·        Being understanding of students (4)

·        Connect with students and cares about them (4)

Some of the popular points students raised weren’t surprising (watching movies, for example), but I liked how for the third question, many of the students touched on the same qualities we did when we brainstormed about what makes a good teacher on the first day of seminar.  That means that what we recognized as a good teacher is still relevant in schools today- so we should try very hard to become a teacher with those qualities as well!