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Is It Up to Students to Evaluate Teachers?
The past few years have witnessed a mounting number of universities allowing students to evaluate their teachers and even decide if they can stay on their positions or not. To this practice, peoples attitudes differ considerably. Some applaud it warmly whereas others criticize and even condemn it harshly.
Proponents of the practice may list the following reasons. In the first place, they assert that students are the people who know the most clearly about the teaching performance of a teacher, so they should have the say in evaluating him or her. In the second place, they contend that students have paid for their education, so they have the right to decide which teacher should be employed.
Opponents, however, point out that it is dangerous to leave the right to students to evaluate teachers. For one thing, students may not know what ought to be taught and how it should be taught; they may only judge a teacher according to his temper and even accent or appearance. For another, in order to please students, some teachers may resort to some improper means.
Personally, I believe that both views are justifiable, and we should achieve a balance between them by employing the evaluating approach in a reasonable and beneficial way. To be specific, students should be allowed to evaluate their teachers, but they may not be the only decision-maker in the teachers fate.
