Student Surveys: Using Student Voice to Improve Teaching and Learning
(Transcript)

Christopher Pagan: We’re going to be taking a short survey again today to see how we’re all doing.

Janice Lombardi: At Garza, the students can voice concerns that they may have about their learning. Student surveys have a dramatic impact on their ownership of learning, and on teachers’ practice.

It’s so important for students to have a voice, particularly in challenging subjects, where it’s difficult to take a risk and say, “You know, I don’t really know one thing that you’ve just said in Physics.”

Kenya: By them asking for our feedback, it kind of makes you feel like you have a voice, you know? Kind of makes you feel a little bit important.

Christopher Pagan: I was looking at my students performance in my Physics class and found that they just weren’t performing up to my expectations. So I developed a simple survey that asked the students a few questions on, you know, “Why do you turn in your homework late? Or why do you always turn it in on time?”

Kenya: Do we like the way he teaches? Do we like the way he demonstrates examples? Are we satisfied with our performance in that class? That was basically the purpose of the survey, so he can know what to improve.

Christopher Pagan: You can put your name on it if you want to. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. And remember, be honest! All right? If you’re not honest, we can’t make changes and we don’t know how to make adjustments.

Janice Lombardi: He got the information back, and those student surveys changed and informed his instruction.

Christopher Pagan: Some of the students they were very strong in the math, they wanted a little bit more help gaining the conceptual ideas, and so I started to implement more hands-on activities with the students.

So what you’re going to be doing is trying to use the principle of resonance to calculate the speed of sound.

Student: And so what we’re doing is we’re recording the data. See how the tuning fork is 384 hertz, and we measured the tube diameter, which was 1.8 meters, and we measured the length of the tube, which was 14.6 meters.

Christopher Pagan: I give them extra practice with homework problems, or pre-quizzes and so it helps the students boost their grades. And I think it gives them more confidence, as well.

Kenya: I feel like I have been learning more and kind of getting the subject more.

Janice Lombardi: So this year, we did a student survey for all teachers. And we asked things like, “Do you feel comfortable in this class? Do you trust the teacher? Do I feel like I’m challenged?” And we got lots of meaningful feedback.

Cynthia Hess: One of the things that I really took away from the surveys, my students needed something different from me than what they were getting. Come on in, guys. They were ready for something more rigorous, and some of the answers were, “I wish she didn’t feel she had to hold our hands through tough things.” That was really enlightening. In terms of how it affected my teaching practice, instead of reading something with them in class, and then guiding them through and telling them what to look for, I might give them something to read outside of class, and they would tell me what they found.

Student: I think what she meant like the color of the bags was like the skin of the people, and the stuff inside was like your personality, what we’ve been through and all that.

Cynthia Hess: Experience, good!

Christopher Pagan: Though we’re all resistant to change, teaching has to be something that’s fluid. We always have to be adapting to our students.

Janice Lombardi: I think this process of getting the student voice and acting upon the student voice actually builds their faith in the system here of learning. As they become more empowered, they are more successful.

Student: So there’s a type of language that was in the story.

Cynthia Hess: Good! Anybody else want to share their thoughts or opinions?

Student Surveys: Using Student Voice to Improve Teaching and Learning (Transcript)

Student Surveys: Using Student Voice to Improve Teaching and Learning
(Transcript)