Brookfield's Questionnaire

In his book Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Stephen Brookfield suggests handing out a questionnaire to your students every week. I decided to do this when teaching Math 53; I ended up forgetting some weeks, so it was more like ever other week. I like it a lot; from my point of view, the main benefit has been psychological, since students have strongly supported some of the nontraditional teaching techniques that I've been using, which has made me a lot happier and a lot more confident that what I'm doing is working. But of course students also have useful complaints and make good suggestions.

Brookfield suggests that you talk to students about the results of the questionnaire after you've read them. This gets students more involved in the running of the class; in addition, it can help if students hear that other people have the same complaints (or the same likes) as they do. I haven't done this very much, I'm afraid. He also makes other suggestions; to see more, read his book, specifically the sixth chapter.

Here's the actual questionnaire. The main thing I don't like about it is the phrasing of the questions; if anybody has suggestions for a less jargony phrasing, I'm all ears. It might also be useful to add targeted questions if there are specific aspect of the course that you're unsure about.

1. At what moment in the class this week did you feel most engaged with what was happening?
2. At what moment in the class this week did you feel most distanced from what was happening?
3. What action that anyone (teacher or student) took in class this week did you find most affirming and helpful?
4. What action that anyone (teacher or student) took in class this week did you find most puzzling or confusing?
5. What about the class this week surprised you the most? (This could be something about your own reactions to what went on, or something that someone did, or anything else that occurs to you.)

Last modified: Wed Jun 28 17:35:39 PDT 2006