Recently, I had a discussion with one guy about a software testing training he has attended. I was surprised when he started to  criticize the instructor immediately after giving his name. I was really shocked since I know that instructor. He has a lot of knowledge and experience in testing field and I already have attended three different trainings/workshops with him. All those trainings/workshops were wonderful. The question is: Why would that happen? Is it high expectations issue? Over confidence? Or an issue related to honesty?

High Expectations

Many people have an issue when evaluating instructors. The issue is that they mix evaluating the course with evaluating the instructor. Therefore, if they do not like the course then they do not like the instructor. That is really a big issue and might be related to the expectations from the course. Actually, those people may set the bar high for their expectations. As a result and if the course did not meet their expectations, immediately they say the course was bad and so the instructor!

Over Confidence

Another issue is that those people might be over confident when they stand and start to evaluate instructors. It is really unfair when a person with almost only three years of experience in software testing stands and criticizes an instructor with more than 30 years experience in the field keeping in mind that this person is not even a trainer! That is what I call over confidence!

Honesty

At the end of every training or course, there is an evaluation form provided which requires the attendees to fill their details. Will the evaluator provide all personal details instead of remain as anonymous especially when criticizing either the course or the instructor? Many people are reluctant to give their details in such cases. This really questions their honesty about what they write in this evaluation form.

Finally..

One last point to mention is that when I started to argue with the person, he started to change his mind and to pull his words. In addition, he admitted that the instructor was able to answer all the questions raised by attendees. At that point, I made my conclusion that the best people to evaluate instructors are instructors themselves.

All the best…