IA Angry Psychology teacher giving feedback on Psych IA

[Yap]

Hello!

This evening when I'm writing this, I'm as confused as I was the day my viewpoint of my Psychology teacher drastically changed.

Yes, it was a couple of weeks ago, when my entire Psychology class were entirely taken apart by our Psychology teacher. We were supposed to get our valuable feedback for our IAs, in which we did, in an unexpected manner.

One of the first thing we got to hear that the results from our first draft were extremely disappointing, and in fact, we had the "Worst result ever" on our Psychology IAs for the entire time my school has had the IB. Well, that's okay one may think, and it was by then. She was the one who knew things, and of course, no one doubted that she was telling us a honest opinion.

But the lesson went by, and she continously said how our IAs lacked this and that, and you know, just totally rejected our Essays.

But that isn't the real problem. Although most of us were chocked with the sudden messege from our Psychology teachers, few of us actually felt that what she did was actual feedback.

We recieved written feedback as well. And just like the lesson, most of it is not constructive at all, but actually quite destructive. She told us that if there are any questions about the IA, we can just write it on a side paper and she will answer the questions as best as she can for our First draft. In one way, it feels that she never really looked at them, because they were all left unanswered.

While the small "feedback" we got on the documents, little is said on how to improve. It simply says for example "This is too weak, vague... etc etc", but there is no information given on how to actually improve. All I know is that I've done something wrong. While often pointed out exactly what is wrong, we get no information on how to solve this.

This evening, I was trying to do my best and correct these things for my IA. But I'm still just confused. We all think our Psychology teacher is a very good teacher, but this behaviour surely drew good will for psychology down drastically. When I finally find some motivation to study psychology again, it really feels like I'm one of the "Worst students ever", a side joke created to lighten up the atmosphere in our class. In fact, we are not "Worst students ever". We actually had a mean grade of +1 compared to last years students first draft. Despite that, our results are for some reason the worst ever, while the results from last year were completely okay. This just doesn't make sense, and so doesn't my feedback. What do I do? I don't want to get her expelled from the school, she's actually a really good teacher... Yet I'm left confused with my unfinished, "worst-result-ever IA" in my hand, not knowing what to do. Only future knows what's ahead of me...

Edited October 1, 2012 by Yap

[Gaby]

I strongly advise you to speak to your IBC. It doesn't really sound like feedback at all. Did you try talking to the teacher as well? She may have had some private issues, death in the family, or something, that affected her work at that time. You should check it.

And I highly doubt you'll get expelled. That would be uncalled for.

I hope everything turns out to be just fine, Psychology is a really great subject.

[blindpet]

That is one hell of a predicament. First of all, do you have the syllabus? The criteria are spelled out for the IA and if your teacher didn't tell you to read them then that is her fault. Secondly, did you see any sample IAs that scored good marks? If not you can grab some on IB survival or click the link in my signature.

The thing about the vague feedback is unfortunate but understandable because of how much more thinking/writing she would have had to do to fully explain what was vague to each of you. If you all made similar vagueness mistakes she should of course given you examples of what was vague and how to elaborate enough so that it was clear. Again that is her bad if she didn't fully explain the errors to the class.

I had problems with my teachers and when they weren't doing what they were supposed to I would go and complain to the IBC so she could do something about it. The teachers are there for YOU to help YOU prepare for your future. If you get several of your classmates together, talk to the teacher first and say 'hey we need some more explanation here' and if she refuses then you go to the IBC. That is what I would do.

As for the rest, send me your IA draft and I will annotate it for you explaining as much as I can what may be missing. Even better if you can send me a digital version of your draft plus a scan of your teacher's annotations of your work.

Oh, and, I'm sure they are not the worst IAs ever, more than likely your teacher was having a bad day or someone pissed her off and she took it out on her unsuspecting psych class.

[Yap]

I strongly advise you to speak to your IBC. It doesn't really sound like feedback at all. Did you try talking to the teacher as well? She may have had some private issues, death in the family, or something, that affected her work at that time. You should check it.

And I highly doubt you'll get expelled. That would be uncalled for.

I hope everything turns out to be just fine, Psychology is a really great subject.

Yeah, problem is that she is the IBC of my school.... And that theIB teachers of my school are really close to each other. Some people in my class did talk to the principal though...

That is one hell of a predicament. First of all, do you have the syllabus? The criteria are spelled out for the IA and if your teacher didn't tell you to read them then that is her fault. Secondly, did you see any sample IAs that scored good marks? If not you can grab some on IB survival or click the link in my signature.

The thing about the vague feedback is unfortunate but understandable because of how much more thinking/writing she would have had to do to fully explain what was vague to each of you. If you all made similar vagueness mistakes she should of course given you examples of what was vague and how to elaborate enough so that it was clear. Again that is her bad if she didn't fully explain the errors to the class.

I had problems with my teachers and when they weren't doing what they were supposed to I would go and complain to the IBC so she could do something about it. The teachers are there for YOU to help YOU prepare for your future. If you get several of your classmates together, talk to the teacher first and say 'hey we need some more explanation here' and if she refuses then you go to the IBC. That is what I would do.

As for the rest, send me your IA draft and I will annotate it for you explaining as much as I can what may be missing. Even better if you can send me a digital version of your draft plus a scan of your teacher's annotations of your work.

Oh, and, I'm sure they are not the worst IAs ever, more than likely your teacher was having a bad day or someone pissed her off and she took it out on her unsuspecting psych class.

Hi Blindpet!

Thank you for taking your time to write these things for me, it means a lot.

I will for sure check out your website! It must be really good! And yes, fact is that we all suspect she's having a hard time, I don't judge her. But she still didn't give us much feedback. About your very kind offer, I would be grateful if you could, but is it really okay for you?

Again, thank you for helping me out!

[blindpet]

You're welcome, that's what I'm here for . I have plenty of time at the moment so just send me a PM with your IA and I'll take a look at it asap.