Quote From Timmy:
Not an opinion, an informed position. I have a Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice which is all about teaching, and I'm an Assistant Lecturer (Level A Academic) at a Group of 8 University (Australian version of Ivy League in the US and Russell Group in the UK).
I've been teaching in Academia since 2011 and have taken on chief examiner/unit coordinator positions since 2013. My standard teaching evaluations vary between a 3.5 and 4.5/5.
I passed my PhD in December and will be graduating in less than 2 weeks where I can formally use the title of Dr (and passed with very, and I mean very minor changes to my thesis). I am also published and the president of a not-for-profit organisation that received a large fund of grant money from the government for mental health project.
I have full time contract teaching & research position, which means that each semester I am the chief examiner and unit coordinator for at least one or more units and have been a chief examiner/unit coordinator for three years now. This semester my unit has over 300 students and I take on a heap of marking as well as ensure that my teaching assistants are marking fairly and providing constructive feedback. The use of in-depth qualitative rubrics helps to ensure this.
I'm also just in the process of finalising my unit for next semester which I revamped completely from scratch.
So not only do I have the right to an opinion, I have the right to an INFORMED position because I have been teaching and utilising seminars and other workshops to improve my teaching but have also been teaching in an authoritative position.
I agreed that the comment "this sounds like bullshit" is inappropriate and that feedback needs to be constructive, but I disagree that making everything positive is helpful. Students need to be able to take on a variety of feedback styles.