Today Seth Godin blogged:
When the truth is just around the corner … what’s your posture?
…
When your organization has a chance to see itself as its customers do, do your leaders crowd around, trying to glean every insight they can about the story and your future, or do they prefer the status quo?
There are more mirrors available than ever. Sometimes, though, what’s missing is the willingness to take a look.
How many schools make changes in their day-to-day learning and teaching practices based on actively-solicited feedback from students? Not many.
Is it because we don’t really want to know? Or because we don’t know what to do with the information that we’d receive? Or we don’t think that students have anything to tell us? Or … ?
Image credit: love sign
The students have loads to tell us – we’re just worlds away. Think about how many of them are using electronic devices, social tools, or online chats to communicate and learn. Yet, a slim percentage of schools are actually taking advantage of social learning which will allow for shared learn between the student and the teacher.
If I were more cynical I’d say that asking students would require, by implication, a response from the Department of Education that addressed concerns. Best not to ask.
But more realistically, I’d suggest that asking about HOW we teach and WHAT we teach could yield useful data no just about practice and content but also about how students value what schools offer on the menu! I’d hope that we shift to greater student independence and autonomy via more surveying of their views.