As a lot of people have noticed, 99% of the teachers on italki have a perfect 5 star rating. It's pretty clear most people are reluctant to give bad ratings.
To students: Imagine you had a bad trial lesson with a teacher who was very friendly and tried their best, but just wasn't a very good teacher. What rating would you give them?
Imagine you have a teacher who you see regularly and respect, but they just gave you an unusually bad class. Would you leave a less-than-perfect rating for them?
To teachers: Do you see what ratings you receive, when you get them and who gives them to you? (if the ratings are anonymous but the teacher can see they got it straight after a lesson, it's pretty obvious the rating was for that lesson!)
I think I would, but I've never done it. Thankfully I had what I consider to be the best teacher possible here at italki & every class was amazing. But if one class was less than stellar I wouldn't downgrade the mark, I'd speak to the teacher. Personal, spoken feedback is something I'd use to correct issues. Public, written feedback is what I use to let others know the overall quality of the teacher.
I also agree that the best way to judge a teacher's history is by the number of repeat visits they get from their students. If a teacher has 500 lessons spread among 400 students that's not as good as another teacher with 500 lessons spread over 30 students. The continued use of a teacher is the best feedback you can find.
Just a little remark, as I am neither a student (for now) nor a teacher.<o:p></o:p>
It always makes me chuckle reading teachers’ feedbacks on the student's profile page. They always praise the student, every lesson has been great, useful, enjoyable and interesting.
No offense, politeness is a virtue and I know it's good to encourage and motivate students. But sometimes it seems a bit over the top to me.<o:p></o:p>
I'm pretty much with Oleg, if the teacher was a charlatan or obviously didn't care, I probably wouldn't mind hurting his feelings. But bad feedback is definitely not something I'd give lightly - most teachers have a very personal approach to their teaching, and judging them harshly is in some way a critique of them as a person (or at least many teachers would take it that way, regardless of the student's intention). In a sense it's very different to judging a product or a service provided by a company.
Personally if I were to pick a new teacher, I'd check to see if they have regular students. I'd be more inclined to trust a teacher with several students who've clocked 20+ lessons than a teacher who has nothing but one-off lessons.
I'd also check to see if they've ever answered questions on the italki forums. To me the best way a teacher can promote themselves is by providing answers that are accurate and detailed yet clear and concise. Answering italki questions well is an art form, much like teaching is too!
