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‘Negative feedback has left me wondering if I’m In the right job’
August 28, 2008
I am a university academic in my 50s. Each year, before the start of the summer vacation, written student comments are submitted to all lecturers. All are anonymous and inevitably some are good, some bad. This year, despite excellent feedback on most courses, one group has written personal and distressing remarks that have left me wondering if I’m in the right job. There is no “right of reply”, and no way of discussing this with the students or finding out which ones are so unhappy. What should I do?
Lecturer, male, 50s
Lucy’s Answer
Unless you want to make a fool of yourself, there is only one thing you can do: nothing. To hunt down your detractors would be hideously embarrassing and would only confirm their dim view of you.
Instead you should try to rub the hurtful remarks from your mind, and stop the pointless agonising over whether you are in the right job. I imagine it is hard enough to keep up morale as a 50-something lecturer – what with the poor pay and the jostling of younger colleagues – without the nasty jibes from students.
Console yourself with the thought that the whole business of teachers being appraised by students is absurd. It is you who is paid to be teaching them and writing reports on them, not vice versa.
In a company there may be some sense in getting underlings to pass judgment on superiors, although most such schemes are badly designed. But to allow students to say what they like anonymously about their teachers strikes me as democracy gone mad.
When I was a student we used to whip each other up into disliking various teachers for mostly stupid reasons. We used to show our dislike of one poor physics teacher by putting crocodile clips on the back of her skirt while she was writing on the board. What your students are doing sounds like a legitimised version of that; you should do what this hapless physics teacher did and simply rise above it.
That doesn’t mean you should ignore all feedback; you should rely on better ways of measuring your worth. Do your students get good marks? Do they appear to be learning anything? Do they listen to your lectures? How many bother to turn up?
These are the things that matter. Whether or not they like you is quite beside the point.
I assume more than one member of the Group has made such comments. However, as long as the comments are personal, you can safely ignore them, even if they are negative. It is the impersonal, professional and negative comments you need to worry about. www.winnowed.blogspot.com
Posted by: Vinod Joseph | August 28th, 2008 at 10:13 am | Report this commentYou must remember this is only one group. If your other feedback has been good, you must be doing something right. Personal comments are unprofessional, but I suppose you can’t really expect professionalism from students. Is there someone else you could talk it through with to get some perspective and see if you can pick something helpful out of it together? Perhaps your line manager, a trusted colleague, someone in hr or a union rep? Maybe someone outside of work?
Perhaps you can review the course content to make it more engaging for current students (not necessarily ‘dumbing down’, I’m just thinking if your examples are all over ten years old, you’re average undergraduate will probably lose interest). Perhaps you could ask for some classroom skills refresher training?
On the other hand, if this isn’t the only thing, and you feel the job isn’t right for you (rather than the other way about), maybe you should consider what else you can do with your skills. University careers services usually give advice to staff as well as students, and it might not be a bad place to start.
Good Luck!
Female, 27, grad student
Posted by: Leni | August 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am | Report this commentFrom my recent grad and undergrad experience, any professor who actually listens to student feedback is like gold dust, and should certainly not consider leaving! The good feedback from other courses suggests that you are in the right job, but somehow didn’t click on the one course. Wanting a right of reply is understandable, but in my experience responding to feedback (no matter how reasonably) comes across as defensiveness or outright denial. Instead, perhaps there is some more constructive criticism to be taken from the comments. If not, you could consider an open letter to the student, thanking them for their input and expressing a genuine desire to improve the course for next year, with suggestions to be sent to a neutral third party (such as a discreet secretary), who will pass them on to you anonymously. If the responses continue to be genuinely vindictive and unhelpful, this will confirm that they are distressing but unfounded attacks and you can stop worrying – if not, you may learn something and make your reputation excellent all round!
Posted by: Ellie, female media executive, 28 | August 28th, 2008 at 12:10 pm | Report this commentIt sounds to me as if one or two individuals, in one group, in one year, have an axe to grind for their own petty reasons - this, and the fact that the remarks made are of a personal, hurtful nature, indicates that you should try to just set them to one side and continue as normal (however difficult that may be).
No doubt the individual or individuals in this group who made these personal comments would love to get a reaction from you - don’t give them the satisfaction.
The fact that you care about their opinions at all says a great deal about you as a person. Don’t allow their vindictiveness and immaturity to knock your confidence.
As an ‘insurance policy’ I would suggest that you raise this with your head of department so he/she is aware of what has happened and how you feel about it, in case any of these individuals try to make trouble for you.
Posted by: GLH, female, 30, manager | August 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pm | Report this commentReflect on the specific, troubling details within your students’ comments. If they’re valid, fix them. If not, chalk it up to generational differences and plod along.
Posted by: Brian | August 28th, 2008 at 2:49 pm | Report this commentIt is impossible that everybody likes you. So accept it. If you do not think there is constructive critism in that group’s comments. Ignore them.
Posted by: jin | August 28th, 2008 at 3:18 pm | Report this commentI teach towards high level professional exams and get feedback from students on the courses that I teach, which is collected via feedback forms at the end of the course. I teach every session to the best of my ability and have almost 20 year’s experience in my subject. Usually the feedback is good - I wouldn’t have stayed in the same job if not.
If I get any negative feedback I have the confidence to reflect that the students aren’t good judges, they don’t have the knowledge that I do and will not be able to make a considered judgement until the future, particularly after they have done the exam.
You sound in a similar situation. Draw strength from what most students think about you, not the minority. And be confident in your own abilities - you are the adult and expert here.
Posted by: Clive | August 28th, 2008 at 3:35 pm | Report this commentDoes this really happen? I can hardly believe my eyes. Anonymous written comments from students to university staff?
Written Performance Reviews were introduced in one of the firms I worked for in Switzerland, with ratings on eight “Important Factors” which ranged from “conditional through adequate, competent, superior to exceptional plus ratings on other areas. Then the employee had a meeting with his/her superior and the employee had to agree to the ratings. If not, compromises had to be found if possible. If not, they “agreed to disagree” and this, with a comment, was noted on the review. The employee had to sign the review.
The system as described by Lucy Kellaway sounds like it was taken out of a Communist Party Handbook and ought to be discontinued.
Posted by: J.J. | August 28th, 2008 at 4:16 pm | Report this commentIt’s so simple:
Posted by: Bernhard P. Rinderknecht, MD | August 28th, 2008 at 5:17 pm | Report this comment1. Yes you are in the right job, because you care about the students feedback.
2. Hang-up a poster with the title: “Free restaurant dinner to win !” and the following text: I love my university job with students. My goal is to do teaching at it’s best. This year I got a lot of good remarks. Some remarks were critical. In order to improve my teaching I set up a contest. Contact me by mail or personally and submit proposals on how I could improve my teaching. I will choose the three best proposals, publish them and reward the authors with an excellent free Restaurant Dinner.
3. A contest with two winners: You and your students. Prepare for enviousness of your teaching colleagues.
Looking back on my recent times as a student, i can confirm that this goes on all the time. We were given the opportunity to give feedback on all lecturers at the end of each semester.
Generally, 2 types of comments were left. The first were from students with a very high opinion of themselves. They assumed that if they found a course difficult, it was because the lecturer was bad at his job, instead of them being anything less than genius material. The second were pretty infantile in nature, either abusive name-calling or exceptionally complimentary (and often sexual). The purpose of these was to provide a cheap thrill imagining the professor’s face when they were read, and to provide a topic of conversation in the Student Union.
There were rumours that a third type, constructive criticism, had been spotted, but these were never confirmed.
Oli, 24, Male, Investment Analyst
Posted by: OC | August 28th, 2008 at 5:20 pm | Report this commentJ.J.,
I knew a little about the China and US universities. China does not have such evaluation system according to my experience as a student. But as an instructor in US, I recieved anonymous comments every semester, most of time online. I assume this guy is from GB and Britain also has such evaluation system.
Posted by: jin | August 28th, 2008 at 8:43 pm | Report this commentI do believe I know this gentleman. Last week I had occasion to check anonymous student comments about an individual who, I thought, had had outtanding reviews by those under his tutelege. Instead, I found some quite vicious comments about both his professional qualifactions and his personal habits in the classroom.
Quite clearly a small group has taken it upon itself to destroy his career. My advice to him will, if I am asked to offer it, be to take the criticisms to heart, avoid the annoying habit of droning on about one subject that seems to irritate the hell out of some in class, and see what other problems can be corrected. Here is a chance for him to clean up his act now instead of being told he must do so or leave. No point is to be served by sulking, as I know this chap is prone to do.
Posted by: Wes Pedersen | August 28th, 2008 at 9:08 pm | Report this commentI am constricted at this point because I encountered the complaints about him by prying into what should be his private affairs. No matter that it was simply to see how a relative was doing, it was outright snooping. Do I shame myself and him by admitting to be a nosey parker and then offering him my advice on coping?
Wes. male, pr exec, middle age
Unless you have actually been fired, choosing to change career in your fifties is strictly for the rich or the bold, neither characteristics I immediately associate with a university academic. Why should you throw up your career because a group of students has made some nasty remarks?
The degree of distress that would compel you to consider such an option is evidence that their remarks have touched a particularly raw nerve. With your experience, I am sure you know the difference between serious harsh criticism and a malevolent student prank - otherwise you would not be so troubled.
360 degree appraisals are a relatively recent invention amd can be very effective. They can also be brutal and confrontational, especially when given by young people who have difficulty imagining that people over fifty have feelings, self-doubt, moments of insecurity, and can be hurt.
I suppose you could call a meeting with the group and bare your soul, present your defense, and ask for understanding. This would be profoundly embarrassing for all involved and probably make you a laughing stock.
The only way forward is to reflect on why you feel so distressed. Is it because they said something that might just be true? And, if so, should you make a change, and could you? This is what 360 degree evaluations are all about. If you are really serious about trying to learn from the feedback, you could even discuss with your peers and your family. Maybe they know you better than you know yourself. On the other hand, you can always chalk up the comfortable thought that “inevitably” some groups give good feedback and some bad.
Posted by: Chris J | August 28th, 2008 at 11:20 pm | Report this commentThe whole point of an anonymous response is that people can freely express their views. If people who leave negative responses are sought out then they will just leave soporific, laudatory responses which will be readily accepted by yourselves as ‘excellent’ confirmatory feedback.
Why do you need ‘right of reply’
If the criticism is gratuitous and personal - dismiss it as ’student humour’.
However, if its detailed and objective and there’s a consensus then take it on board.
As regards ‘being in the right job’ - you are. In the private sector ‘criticism’ is widely prevalent as is adoption of the concept of ‘customer’.
Posted by: Phil | August 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm | Report this commentI’m surprised that someone with such a thin skin would survive as long as you have in this profession.
I don’t see “right to reply” as a serious issue, because personal attacks don’t merit a response. If you really ARE doing an appalling job, students WILL complain about it, and their complaints WILL be much more specific than irrelevant personal attacks. So the noise might or might not reflect a real problem, but if it does, there will be someone who will write a well thought out complaint.
So filter out the noise, but be attentive to the other comments.
Posted by: Donovan | August 29th, 2008 at 4:51 pm | Report this commentStudent feedback can be helpful but it also needs to be treated with some scepticism. Sometimes it comes from people who have never had the power to comment like this before and can’t resist abusing it. Or it can be the result of peer pressure where one or two outspoken people have talked at length about their dissatisfaction and taken a group of others with them, who would otherwise have been perfectly satisfied.
Use your judgement to decide if anything in the criticism points to any positive changes you can make. If it does, take action. Then tell yourself that nobody can please all people all of the time and put the rest behind you. Don’t let this episode undermine your confidence as that’s a pretty sure recipe for getting negative feedback again next time.
Posted by: NW | August 29th, 2008 at 8:33 pm | Report this comment(NW,lecturer, male, 45)
In my observation student feedback forms just given an axe to under performers, so if you’ve had consistently good evaluations, then dump the nasty feedback in the bin and forget it.
The problem comes in how this student feedback is stored and used. It boils down to the professionalism of the organisation you work for.
If they’re just a teacher’s assist, and accessible to no-one, no big deal.
But if the feedback is logged onto a public server, and used by your organization to justify personnel decisions, I’d get out of there immediately.
If they’re on a public server, these vindictive comments are essentially being made publicly available. They are damaging your reputation and you should speak to a lawyer.
In the U.K., public written remarks that damage someone’s reputation must not just be true, but be PROVABLY true.
That’s an important difference. I encourage you to unmask your anonymous vilifiers and tell them to prove the truth of what they wrote. I bet they can’t, in which case I would not only resign but sue your employer.
Posted by: S. | August 30th, 2008 at 7:06 pm | Report this commentThe suing bit depends a bit on what is written, if it is phrased as a personal reaction then it is difficult “I find his choice of clothing distracts me from what he has to say.”, “I don’t feel I can … “.
What is much more likely than the two scenarios described by “S” is a third, that the feedback will be accesible to management only, and will be pulled out when they see you as being against them on any work issue or when discussing remuneration.
Getting distressed is not an option. As a male you are a hunter and you need to think like one. Take the information you need and disregard the emotional content.
Posted by: Samec, 30 | August 31st, 2008 at 12:31 am | Report this commentrocheI see this as a customer service issue. The questionnaire is a tool to poll the customers regarding the job provided. As with any opinion poll there is going to be divergent opinions - with students it becomes amplified because of maturity levels and the pressure of grades. It is not life and death !
In all opinions there is a grain of valuable truth that can be applied. I see two questions that you need to answer:
1) Can you take the best of their input and leave the rest? You don’t discount their input but you use that which is specific and constructive.
2) Since you specify “this year”, have you changed anything in your manner, approach, or technique that may be discounting the delivery of your product?
Since you are not afforded the right to face your accusers, you need to review the comments, evaluate them as objectively as you can, then move on.
As far as being in the right job? It sounds more like you are having a crisis of faith than a lack of ability. As other responses indicate, the fact that you care about the feedback elevates you head and shoulders above most instructors. Take the grain of truth, embellish your abilities, and keep doing the good job that the majority of the students believe you are doing. Good Luck.
Posted by: Gary, 51, Male, SR Manager | September 1st, 2008 at 2:58 pm | Report this commentThat you write so easily about criticism being both good and bad, without dwelling on the latter suggests that you can accept all the feedback that you receive, especially if it can be considered professional. If they were remarks that were about your (lack of) professionalism, wouldn’t that be the right reason to question your suitability for the job?
These wounding remarks, albeit from those not experienced in judging criticism or dealing with people maturely, obviously run deeper than anything before, but they are personal, not professional. Is there anything constructive about this that you can take away from them? Regardless of the answer to that, move on, accentuate the positive and downplay the negative and don’t let them shake your confidence, because they’re not worth it.
Posted by: Dr K | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm | Report this commentBloody students. Just be grateful they didn’t dismantle your car and reconstruct it on top of the Sheldonian Theatre.
Male, 44, CEO
Posted by: Julian | September 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm | Report this commentI would say it is wonderful to have anonymous appraisals.
As with the www.iwantgreatcare.org where we can all say what we think of our Doctors without the usual fear of them writing it on your notes for all their cronies to read in the future and condemn you to mediocre service.
Use it for what it is designed to do - get you an honest opinion.
Why do you think explaining to someone why they shouldn’t be thinking these things about you is of any value.
Retired Shellfish Dealer 57
Posted by: Steve | September 7th, 2008 at 9:05 pm | Report this commentI’ve stopped reading student comments on the offical evaluation sheets, as far as I can see they are sticks to beat teachers with. I run my own assessment exercise based on more rigourous proceedures that give me the information I need to improve my courses.
Posted by: Paul teacher | September 11th, 2008 at 2:24 pm | Report this commentAnonymous comments are written with no context - and less thought
Negative student feedback can be caused by a number of factors: course material, course presentation, lecturer-student intervention, vindictive students, etc.
You need to go outside the student-lecturer circle: Ask some (supportive) colleagues for feedback, have some of your lectures/tutorials videotaped and reviewed, and run student surveys repeatedly during the year - so there is space for improvement.You can’t make everybody happy all of the time. The most important question: did the students learn something? Did you transmit knowledge and intellectual curiosity?
Walter, taught for 35 years
Posted by: Walter Schwager | September 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm | Report this commentAssessments by students are valuable if you take a broad look - if 20% or less of the students did not like you, your style or the course, too bad (for them). If it’s 80% you may have a problem. On the other hand, I find that the students I deal with see themselves as “customers” as they pay for tuition, many come to class expecting to be entertained while they play with their cellphones and iPods and wait until the next smoking break, any assignments that require reading and reasoning are “too hard”. Of course they expect top grades for least effort. Generation Y - right?
Posted by: ed - 50 plus part time MBA professor | September 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pm | Report this commentDear Lecturer
Unless you have been actively bullying and horrid to these students, do not give up. I recently completed a degree and was horrified by the childish bullying that I witnessed by supposedly mature students of poor overworked individual academics. If you experienced anything like the persecution I have seen, then I would like to send you a electronic hug!!!!
You sound like a lovely, sensitive teacher, and I only wish you were teaching me! I have also experienced brutish, bullying teachers who I’m sure would not care about any bad feedback.
Stick with your job and remember there will always be good non psychopathic students who will appreciate you!!
Posted by: LeChat | September 29th, 2008 at 5:52 pm | Report this commenti will pay u to leave negative feedback for a buyer who left a unfair negative and ruin my 100 percent positive rating over the last 9 years. She is also a seller. Should i buy from her and leave her a negative?..or should i have a stranger or friend buy from her and leave her the negative? I’m sorry i am pissed at this new system.
Posted by: kikki | October 3rd, 2008 at 5:13 am | Report this commentYou could neatly circumvent this problem by volunteering to take charge of the student feedback yourself - it’s one of those admin jobs nobody else can be bothered to do. Your colleages will have nothing but gratitude for you. At admin meetings you can make a big show of how you collected and collated all the feedback. You can present your own analysis of it, and extrapolate your own recommendations. Nobody cares anyway, it’s just something universities have to do. Nobody ever takes any action based on student feedback. If this were in America, my advice would be different. There, you have to brown-nose the students every minute of the day, or there’ll be trouble. There’ll probably be trouble anyway.
Posted by: Tom in London, male, university lecturer | October 27th, 2008 at 3:40 pm | Report this commentThis is an annoying subject. I too was subject to this form of abuse. So I used to do my own assessments of myself on the same form and discuss my responses with the Teaching Director. This allowed him/her to see how the student responses might be biased and the computer analyses insensitive. Plus such a responce satisfied me as I could, from my ‘experience’, create some measure of competance or indeed learn of my weaknesses.
Posted by: John: Business School lecturer - at 69 now almost retired yet still writing. | October 30th, 2008 at 11:39 pm | Report this commentAbove all - don’t worry.
“I imagine it is hard enough to keep up morale as a 50-something lecturer – what with the poor pay and the jostling of younger colleagues – without the nasty jibes from students.”
-Yuck, how patronising.
Posted by: Mark | November 8th, 2008 at 6:42 pm | Report this comment