Understanding Teacher Feedback: Shyamal Tiwari at TEDxBergenCommunityCollege

Teacher feedback and evaluations in the United States have been around since at least the 1920's, coming into prominence during the educational reforms of the 1960s. Originally, the move to evaluate teachers was reactionary; a response to the demands of students to let their voices be heard. Today, with an increased emphasis on assessment and accountability in education, student evaluations and feedback have been afforded a larger role.

Given recent technological innovations and their effect on social relationships, how does the role of student evaluations mirror the changing relationship between teachers and students? As stakeholders are allowed greater access to every part of the educational process, what challenges and opportunities are teachers confronted with? How does a young teacher cope with the widening range of opinion on their craft: from the glowing class observation of their Dean to the latest scathing online review?

Using humorous personal anecdotes and novel comparisons to unrelated fields, Prof. Sony Tiwari will discuss the impact of technology on the teacher-student relationship. He will share how developments in social media, teacher access and feedback have moved him to rethink the student-teacher relationship and to question what innovation in higher education really looks like.
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