Following on from other threads about what teachers should expect from parents and what pupils shouild expect from teachers, has anyone ever actually asked parents and older pupils to respond honestly and anonymously to a questionnaire-type thing? I would quite like to hear feedback of this kind, as we can probably rest assured that, unless something is badly wrong, we are most likely to hear about what clients (for want of a better word) are happiest with. But there may be issues that they put up with because of what they're happy with!

Questions should probably be open-ended rather than leading questions with black and white answers. But what exactly to ask, and how to make it completely anonymous?

I wouldn't worry about it, parents won't all want the same thing, no one has a right to expect perfection.

The most important thing is that the Teacher provides for the needs of a particular child. I think most teachers try hard with their strugglers, those that don't practice. I think it's sometimes harder to meet the needs of the ones that are not in these groups.

The things I want for my child are appropriate progress, streaching, focusing on technique where required, and for her to be happy with her teacher.

The big problem is when the one size fits all comes into play, just being on the forum means teachers on here are less likely to fall into this category.

I don't mind if someone can't do a particular aspect, teach jazz for instance
(not what I wanted to say), as long as they are honest about it. I'd respect a teacher who tried so long as i knew where I stood. I'd be angry if they pretended when they didn't have a clue.

I've thought about doing something like this myself, but the anonymity thing would be the hardest - you would recognise their writing - unless you made it a tick box type thing, but that wouldn't get you the interesting answers that you are looking for!

Perhaps best to word questions very simply and ask about each aspect of the lesson

eg What do you like best about your lessons? What do you enjoy least? Are there any actitivities that you find particularly easy or difficult? That sort of thing.

If presented to your students as a way of you gathering information in order to improve your lessons and help them in the most appropriate way, rather than some sort of assessment, hopefully they will respond appropriately and positively.

You could do the questionnaire to apply to a set of lessons eg the previous half term, or just a few, or even based on one day's lesson.

You need to think carefully about what you want to know - is it a general impression of your teaching style and overall student satisfaction, or are you more concerned to know which of 3 different methods of teaching sight-reading /aural etc your student finds most helpful?

Good point! I didn't really mean to find out where parents felt the focus should be with regard to teaching and learning, because that's the teacher's job to decide that. I was diplomatically told once that I needed to allow a pupil a little more personal space when peering over her shoulder to see what was on the page. And I was also told once to "For G*d's sake let me get to the end of the first line before you say something else!" In both cases, the pupil may have allowed him/herself to get pretty worked up about the 'problem' before it verbalised! I wonder what else I'm doing that's equally aggravating that I'm not aware of!

Taking a video of a lesson can be quite revealing - leave it for a few days before you watch, and then cringe as you spot all the irritating things that you do.....

I think it is very difficult as a teacher NOT to point out ALL the things that are wrong at once. I try to focus on one issue per piece per lesson and trust that there will be some 'cross-fertilisation' in the things that I try to correct eg timing, phrasing etc. All too easy to overwhelm students with multiple tasks. The most difficult student I have in this regard is an adult, who wants to run before he can walk. I find it very difficult to get him to accept the steps along the way that he needs.

I don't think the purpose of the questionnaire was necessarily to follow exactly what the students wanted more or less of in lessons, rather to identify areas that could be improved or expanded.

If it was anonymous, you might end up with conflicting comments and be none the wiser. For instance....

At one time I used to have clarinet lessons during the holidays with a teacher who wasn't my regular teacher. This teacher was good for me in some ways but I wouldn't have liked her as a full-time teacher because she liked playing along with me and I never seemed to get to play on my own, with her just listening to me and correcting me. But other students might have been happy with it. If the questionnaire was anonymous, how would you know which student to alter your practice with (if indeed you wanted to alter it at all - although you would eventually have lost me as a student partly because of this practice).

I wouldn't have a problem putting my name to a questionnaire, or discussing things in person if the teacher asked for my views. Sometimes it's difficult to raise a matter yourself out of the blue, and although I'm not normally backwards in coming forwards, I didn't feel comfortable about telling my teacher that I didn't like her playing along with me all the time. If she'd asked though, it would have given me the opportunity to speak up.

But it's all a matter of balance, nothing is ever perfect (although my current teachers come close )

Actually depending on how internet savvy you and the parents/pupils are anonymity might not be that much of a problem, there's online applications like surveymonkey that let you make up surveys etc. Although that certainly wouldn't solve the problem of contradictory responses

If you do a surveymonkey survey, you can offer the person filling it in the option whether or not to reveal their identity. This way, the ones who identify themselves could have their comments acted upon, if you wished to.

Burl

As others have said, you may well find conflicting views in what people say.

At my university I used to be responsable for preparing worksheets and writing lesson plans for the "lecteurs" to use to teach their classes. At the end of each year I used to give them an anonymous questionnaire to fill in which asked them to rate all the lessons they'd taught (A= wonderful, use again, B = O.K. C = awful, drop it for next year, ?= can't remember how the lesson went) and had space for things they would like to change, things they wished they'd know etc. Most of the lessons got rated either B or ?, none were entirely either A or entirely C. I came to the conclusion that if the lesson was anything other than fairly bland then equal numbers of people would love it and loathe it. All this to say that it is probably more useful to have a personal answer than an anonymous one since you are not teaching a group.

As to what to ask, I think that as a teacher you probably already know what works and what doesn't for your different pupils. I think that as a pupil (and a parent) you can only say with hindsight what might have been better done differently.

This has the distinct whiff of spam about it...

I had exactly the same experience ! - a 13 year-old girl turned round and said:

"once, just ONCE, could you just let me play the blinkin' piece without interrupting ?!?!"

It sounds very rude on paper but it wasn't rude - she was half-laughing, half-exasperated and I though, yep, you're quite right, I should put a sock in it a bit.

And so for the next pupil I think it'll be nice to just let them play their first piece through - and half way through the girl stops and turns round and when I say 'why d'you stop?' she says 'I thought you'd fallen asleep or something' . . .


PS On the question of questionnaires, I once spent a lot of time and effort preparing one for all the tennis kids that I was responsible for and only got about a third back, and those that did come back either had generic comments like 'fine' or 'OK' or very specific, not very helpful ones like 'wish it wasn't on Thursdays because I have to visit my sick mother on Thursdays but that might be changing next year beacuse my sister's going to do Thursdays but only if she gets the new job and that's only if . . . '

I decided against questionnaires after that . . .

[quote name='Dulciana' date='Jan 26 2009, 01:55



This was interesting. I think the questionnaire sounds like a night mare. In the example above, for instance, where you do not allow the pupil to get to the end of the line. This shows the lack of understanding of person who said this to you (i think). I will try and explain, i was once trying to play a new piece and teacher stopped me on the 2nd or 3rd note, i do not think i got to end of 2nd bar . I took this as being great as my teacher was doing a brilliant job trying to get me to do the technical demands of this piece. I enjoyed it lots and thought it was great -- really interesting. I set of home and practiced trying to get the first 2 bars technically correct and with a good sound --- well goodish. I was not of the attitude ---- interfering teacher will not let me play the whole line/piece. So i think it just goes to show how every one is different. What i have learn't to expect from teacher may be entirely different from some one else. The teacher needs to "set the rules" i think. Also, as a beginner, i had no idea what to expect from a teacher ---- other than "here's my instrument show me how to play it properly". My teacher has the expertise to assess me and know what needs to be done.

So i do not know who said this to you, but for me, i really appreciate the teachers input all the time and makes the lessons so interesting. For others they may see it as an annoyance. If you want feedback i would say not anonymous, for reasons above. What about feedback, for example, that may say --- i do not want you to teach me oral or clapping rhythms as this is quite boring, also hate when you have say i have to practice at home more. (this is only an example --- not my opinion!).

I do think, that a questionnaire is unnecessary --- if you are talking with parent/pupil about things as you go.

Yes, stopping and working on sections/bars needs to be done but I've always thought that the general 'rule' was that you listen to the whole thing through uninterrupted first and do the taking apart on the second playing.

I quite like my teacher to interrupt, otherwise she just sits there making exasperated noises, and I know I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what.

A couple of my son's teachers write extensive notes during the lesson for him, and I love this, it really gets him to remember what went on in the lesson, and what to focus on for next time. They have also given him clear instructions on how long he needs to practise for each day, and what proportion of technical exercises and scales to pieces he should do. It's great, their expectations are very clear, so he knows exactly what he should be doing.

That maybe depends at what stage the pupil is at with the learning process. IMO it would be wrong to always do one thing or the other, and if you always tend to stop the pupil near the beginning there's a danger that you'll get bogged down with the first section and never get further through the piece!

I think the right answer is a balance, but it's not always necessary to hear an uninterrupted performance before tackling things in more detail - sometimes it would be better to save that (the uninterupted performance) until after you've worked on it in detail, and with longer pieces there won't always be time for two run-throughs in the same lesson.

Not always a play through of an entire piece if it's a long one. In that case it might just be a play through of whatever section you've been working on.
I don't think I've ever been stopped on first play through of something though sometimes if I've stalled it may be decided to start taking things apart at that point.

My teacher very rarely lets me play through a whole thing (or even section) uninterrupted and these days I am so used to being interrupted after a short time that I find it quite stressful when he doesn't (Sometimes he stops me before I've even played the first note when he thinks I haven't taken a proper breath ).

Yes, i see what you are saying and agree, but i think , for me i do not mind. I do play something through first sometimes. But, not always. Maybe for the sake of poor teacher having to listen to it. .
Sometimes, time is so valuable as well -- but do get your point here.



Isn't that strange --- see -- i do not find this stressful, but is so interesting and fun.

It's interesting how different teachers approach things. Mine lets me play through the piece and then will ask me to play from a particular bar and will then go over and over it until I improve and then will play through the piece with me after the microscopic nitpicking....(did I actually say that aloud).....so that I have a bit of fun with it and get exactly how it should be played. I rather like it this way

I think ---- you have said what i was trying to say, perhaps ------ about the balance and not having time in a lesson to play something through first. I think because there are other things that need to be done as well.

----- never get through the piece! ---- then i might say something! (eventually).

What I meant was that it was stressful when he didn't stop me!

On seeing this resurrected thread I noticed that SueHM is unregistered now. That's such a shame! Does anybody know why?

She started a thread about it in the Cafe, Dulciana. She has re-registered under another name, I believe.