The Puzzle: Blog

At every phase—from your first days as a student-teacher to your 20^th year as a teacher or high-level administrator—it’s necessary to conduct frequent self-evaluations. How are you performing? Are you achieving what you wanted to when you began? How do people you respect—supervisors, mentors, etc.—view your performance?

Faculty evaluations are a frequent topic of conversation—and, often, an area of improvement—for school administrators. Each school varies in how it evaluates its teachers: some have rigid metrics that teachers must meet, others match teachers with mentors who provide more qualitative feedback, and some don’t have much of a structured evaluation system at all.

Regardless of your school’s faculty evaluation plan, it’s incumbent upon you to make sure you are aware of how you are being assessed. You can use this information to refine your techniques in class, develop your own opinions and pedagogy, and demonstrate a constant commitment to being the best teacher you can be.

Ensuring your continued progress and improvement is as simple as asking a question. In your own school, seek out a mentor if you haven’t already. This could be your department chair, the Dean of Faculty, or even a colleague you respect who happens to work in another department. In coffee breaks or lunch meetings with your mentor, don’t be afraid to ask for advice and feedback. Share any issues that you may be facing and ask how s/he would handle the same situation. Invite him or her to audit your class and give you feedback on how you’re doing and how you could improve. When you are a part of a school community, you should not teach in a silo—there is no need to “go it alone.” You’ll be a stronger teacher—and a better part of that community—if you ask for help.

Similarly, if you’re on the job hunt, you should definitely ask for feedback from interviewers who have decided to pursue another candidate. If you make it to the on-campus interview round and are not selected, it is perfectly fine to ask for feedback—not an explanation—to help you improve for the remainder of your job search. You might discover that an aspect of your lesson plan you found very strong didn’t resonate well with the hiring contact or with the students, or that the joke you told at lunch didn’t settle well with some faculty. You can use each piece of information you glean from contacts in the job search process to help you in your next interview and increase the odds of finding the right fit.

How do you ask for feedback and ensure continued improvement? Leave your comments below!

Image credit: Microsoft

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