Acquiring and Using Student Feedback

by John M. Zeigler, Ph.D.
Rio Rancho, NM USA

tudent turnover is a natural part of any teaching studio business. Students can leave the studio for all kinds of reasons - financial, change of interests, time constraints, or, more infrequently, a less-than-optimal interaction with the teacher, to name a few. Sometimes, a student departure can be an awkward situation and, rarely, downright unpleasant! In most cases, the teacher is never really aware of the full reasons why the student left, since most people won't tell the teacher the full truth, especially if there are some perceived problems with the student's training or interactions with the teacher. The closer the interaction that the teacher has with the student/parents, the more likely it is that they will be reluctant to tell the teacher of any problems they perceive.

Yet, departing students can be a source of some of the most honest and valuable information a teacher can get about how students and their parents view him/her as a teacher. Not only can the teacher find out how the student felt about his lessons in the studio, but also learn what services the student cared about, whether he enjoyed lessons and what led him to stop lessons in the studio, to name just a few. In this article, I'll consider how a teacher might get and use input from departing students to improve teaching and increase studio cost-effectiveness. I'll also discuss briefly how formalized feedback might be made into an ongoing process for all students of your studio.

Wise teachers want and get organized feedback from all their students