Interpreting student feedback in a relevant way and coping with it is essentia for academics' professional developmentl. On the other hand, sometimes it can be challenging to interpret the feedback. I am interested in your views and experiences.
How to use student feedback to improve teaching? What kind of feedback is most useful to improve the quality of teaching?
Student feedback is very useful in improving teaching materials, methods and assessments. However, the feedback need to be sincere and unbiased.
Dear Prof. Kaasila!
You spotted a very important issue. The focus must be on interaction, and engaging students so as to facilitate personal and professional growth:
1) Wut, Tm., Xu, J. Person-to-person interactions in online classroom settings under the impact of COVID-19: a social presence theory perspective. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09673-1 Open access:
Article Person-to-person interactions in online classroom settings u...
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https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/18191/450635/apac-ebook-forum-2020-covid-19-the-future-of-digital-information-for-libraries
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Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely
I think it is also important for a teacher not to over-react and change too fast in responding to feedback from students on teaching. If one or two persons leave feedback of a special kind, it is not given that this represent the whole group. That ,must be examined better.
in the same way, if a student seems very interested and poses a good question during a lecture, that deserves an answer of course, but there is a teacher temptation to think at once that all students are equally interested in this discussion or exploration, so the remaining time should be assigned to that. Not so sure.
An additional issue is to keep apart the issues of students happiness (shown by positive feedback) from their actual learning results. Some students will be happy with teaching without really learning anything, because they most of all just want to pass the course and go on.
Bulcsu Szekely, thank you for sharing your views. I agree that focus has to be on interaction and engaging students. Thank you for sharing the links. I will look at them.
Anders Norberg, thank you for sharing your views. They include very good points. I completely agree that it is important that a teacher is not over-reacting and changing teaching on the basis of one or two critical comments especially if the most part of students are mainly satisfied. Student feedback is an useful tool but it does not always directly reflect the quality of teaching.
In the students' opinions we find the preconceptions they have about scientific concepts, and from there we can rethink teaching strategies and optimize resources. These opinions also serve to encourage discussion and exchange of ideas about a particular concept or phenomenon, through argumentation.
Wilmer Lopez, thank you for sharing your views. This is a good point. I agree that with you that for all teachers, it is important to know well their students' preconceptions about scientific concepts, and to develop teaching on the basis of them. Later we can ask feedback from the students how the teaching strategies have helped them to deepen their understanding about a particular phenomenon.
Great point, Anders Norberg it is trends and context that should be strongly considered!
Good morning
As a professor, it is important to know student's perceptions. Also, some institutions evaluated professors.
Best regards
Ph.D. Ingrid del Valle García Carreño.
As a learning facilitator, it is necessary to listen to the needs of our learners. It is in their feedback we can reflect on what we have and do in teaching. Our services in educating them will be enhanced and improved through their suggestions.
Ingrid Del Valle García Carreño and Nancyruth Leibold, thank you for your contribution to this discussion. I agree with you.
Student feedback should be very informative and immediate. Such kinds of feedbacks will have a lasting influence upon the students.
Learners provide feedback in a number of ways. Course evaluation/survey is just one of them. Learners communicate with their behavior. Using analytics, you can determine how long it takes, where learners hesitate in completing a task, and when they don't progress at all. Using the data signaling their behavior, course/module creators can improve instructions, add graphic elements or icons, and check the consistencies among design and text elements. Any feedback requires a "check in" with the learning outcomes and the target learners.
We labeled this continuous improvement approach, the "Learner Stewardship Cycle" and the full-text article can be found here in ResearchGate.
Zaghab, R.W., Maldonado, C., Whitehead, D., and Rodriguez de Bittner, M. (2015, June 25-26). The learner stewardship cycle in asynchronous online continuing education. International Conference on e-Learning. College of the Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas.
My course is a little different. It is a ludic community-based project-based course focusing on food dignity in an urban environment. There are two types of student feedback I use. The first is the standard course survey (SRS) that offers useful information about how the course was taught and my performance. Sometimes it's challenging to receive feedback we don't expect. Knowing that students believe that this SRS gives them certain power over the course. Some useful feedback I've received is the text materials I've used. It has become redundant and has not aged well. I have chosen another text. That was helpful for me and future students. I've used the SRS feedback to ensure that students are retaining the information I want them to. This is helpful as our students are changing- I can not rely on students to make high-level connections between content and application. I have to be more explicit in my expectations and the 'whys' of the activities we embark upon.
I do, however, view with some skepticism, if the student enjoyed the course. Mine is not a course for every student, it can be very challenging for students who are Type A. Yet it is very supportive of marginalized students. This is discussed the first day.
The other type of feedback that is more beneficial are weekly student reflections. These are built into my hybrid course. I use the high-impact educational practices framework along with a critical service-learning lens to inform the questions I ask students. This, of course, opens up a deluge of questions and deliberative dialogue about social justice practice, where the student sees themselves in the scope of the community, how politics is infused into everything we do, and finally, what can WE do about it (the imaginative part).
I enjoy talking about my course and ludic profession- I welcome continued connection!
Resources:
High Impact Educational Practices https://www.aacu.org/node/4084
Traditional Vs. Critical Service-Learning: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ831374.pdf
Stewart Brown. Play how it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorate the soul.
Alison James and Stephen Brookfield. Engaging Imagination. Helping students to become creative and reflective thinkers.
Student feedback is helpful for improving teaching as the learners desire. It may be sometime helpful, but not always. Self-analysis is a good tool one may add with it.
Roxanne Ward Zaghab and Megan Boone, thank you for sharing your views and insights. They include many interesting points. It seems that you both have utilized student feedback in a very systematic way, I agree that analytics is one useful tool.
" Interpreting student feedback" can be very disheartening and nonconstructive. They seem to have never been able to critique their teachers and this appears t.o come out as an outpouring of frustration from all the times they were corrected and had no voice
Giving constructive feedback to the students is usually for both of us a very positive experience especially if it is oral or in the form of a chat. After such a connection is established, students copy you and spontaneously start making suggestions and participate more in class. Then you do have feedback that is more authentic and far more varied. Nota Bene: Correcting papers as a form of feedback, with lots of notes red lines, rewrites, is generally not read by my students and strangely seems to reinforce their mistakes in grammar. However, when it is Microsoft spellcheck or Grammarly that red lines their common errors it seems to stay with them. Go figure.
Sincerely
CG Yukna
Christopher Gerard Yukna, thank you for sharing your views. They include good points. I agree with you that giving constructive feedback to the students is often for both of us a very positive experience. I see that it would be important to teach students to give constructive feedback, especially such feedback that helps teachers to imrove their teaching. When I have with my collegues studied university lecturers' emotional responses to student feedback, we noticed that part of the feedback is focusing on the lecturers' personal characteristics, and this kind of feedback can lead to negative emotional spiral.
can lead to negative emotional spiral. oh, I so agree Raimo Kaasila Listen, I have seen so many young teachers, managers, even school directors burnout from the emotional drains of being creative, trying to power share, turn the top down into bottom-up, encouraging mistakes to be made, etc. While autocratic hidebound teacher/dictators thrive and be rewarded by their institutions, sadly. (and understand those autocratic teachers are some one-dimensional comic book villain nor often hated by the majority of their students nor are their techniques without fruits)
CG YUKNA
Christopher Gerard Yukna, thank you for your reply. Actually, we noticed in our narrative study (Lutovac, Kaasila, Komulainen & Maikkola, 2017) that all the seven lecturers received negative feedback, however, it did not influence all of them in the same way. Some lecturers were thrown into a downward (negative) emotional spiral based on a single piece of negative feedback. They had a tendency to deal with student feedback in a non-productive way, meaning that they fixated on one piece of negative feedback and lent it a disproportionate relevance.
Conversely, upward (positive) emotional spiraling does not mean that the feedback has been only positive. It means that lecturers’ coping strategy was more proactive, involving an understanding of the situation as being a positive challenge and seeing it as a part of a problem to be solved. They did not see negative student feedback as being harmful, but instead as motivating. We see that confidence in one’s own teaching skills as a part of a broad and positive mind-set, plays an important role here, as it prevents one from being easily undermined by negative feedback.
Over the last year, I switched to finishing every lesson/training that 90 mins and more with the feedback time. I have a slide that I pre-teach for the first time, to make sure students/clients are in the same terms on what feedback is and what it isn't.
Every next time I put this slide on and have a round of answers that I learn so much from. It increases the level of reliability, comfort, motivation and overall being heard and appreciated for students and for me as a trainer/course designer.
Indeed, I improved immensely in creating learning experiences for my students and clients thanks to consistent and productive feedback.
Yuliya Shtaltovna, thank you for sharing your experiences. You have applied many good ideas and conducted relevant practices.
Classroom teaching can be modelled as a "Dualized Concept" i.e. Teacher-Student relationship. In a typical classroom, the role of teachers in imparting knowledge is as essential as managing feedback. Students' stand a lot to gain from classroom teaching if feedbacks are well managed. That is the only medium for the prospective student to confirm or discount a behaviour is through full utilization of feedback. It reinforces students behavioural patterns for proper adjustment. It is as useful as using motivational techniques in the case of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational techniques. As classroom practitioners, it is our number role to use feedback appropriately and timely to maintain students creativity.
I build a continuous feedback plan for each course. I start almost each course wit a short quiz on what we are going to learn. They of course fail most things, but they keep that paper with them. Then I share learning outcomes very clearly and ask students to give me feedback every 4 weeks on what worked, what did not and importantly write their self reflection on what they did to be successful. they also take the same quiz every 4 weeks and they can now test themselves on what they learned. I train them a bit on giving helpful feedback (saying something sucks means nothing, giving me specifics means I can dive in and change) for course improvement. The last thing I do is that if one or a group of the students has given me really good feedback that has resulted in change, I mention them at the of the class and also put their names as contributors on a slide when I start teaching the next semester.
Sunay Palsole, thank you for sharing your experiences. Your ideas and practices to use stiudent feedback to improve teaching sound very good and systematic. The idea that you mentioned in the last sentence is interesting. I am sure that your students see this kind of practices as encouraging and rewarding.
Yes its true that interpreting feedbacks are very much challenging. Both positive and negative feedbacks are helpful in improving the quality of teaching. Positive feedback is necessary to motivate ourselves and in case of negative feedback, it helps us to modify our method of teaching. In many cases I have seen that there occurs emotional burnout after having negative feedback from students. This is natural according to human psychology but we should accept it slowly because we are also co learners. I had gone for continuous feedback mechanism after each semester and compare the feedback results with each other so that I can understand my improvement process. But I have also experienced that in some cases when I modify my teaching methods according to the feedback results, it is not applicable to every batch of students because of individual differences.
I would like give some quiz to the students base on their experiences in each course and they give feedback it with their enthusiasm, it can improving their knowledge by some good feedback .
Debarati Dhar and Rohana Syamsuddin, thank you for sharing your experiences. Debarati lifted up a very good point: I agree that sometimes teachers can consider negative student feedback so that it is threatening their person or identity, and this can even lead to emotional burnout. When I have discussed about this topic with staff in unversity pedagogy studies, I have emphasized that it important to share negative and positive student feedback with colleagues. Everyone gets sometimes negative students feedback but it is important to learn to handle or copy with it. For example, pedagogical bibliotherapy and narrative rehebilitation can be useful tools for handling with negative feedback.
A teacher has the distinct responsibility to nurture a student’s learning and to provide feedback in such a manner that the student does not leave the classroom feeling defeated. Here you will find 20 ideas and techniques on how to give effective learning feedback that will leave your students with the feeling they can conquer the world.
Ways to Provide Effective Feedback
1. Feedback should be educative in nature.
2. Feedback should be given in a timely manner.
3. Be sensitive to the individual needs of the student.
4. Ask the 4 questions.
These four questions are also helpful when providing feedback to parents:
What can the student do?, What can’t the student do?
How does the student’s work compare with that of others?
How can the student do better?
5. Feedback should reference a skill or specific knowledge.
6. Give feedback to keep students ‘on target’ for achievement.
7. Host a one-on-one conference.
8. Feedback can be given verbally, non-verbally, or in written form.
9. Concentrate on one ability or skill.
10. Alternate due dates for your students/classes.
11. Educate students on how to give feedback to each other.
12. Ask another adult to give feedback.
13. Have the student take notes.
14. Use a notebook to keep track of student progress.
15. Return tests, papers, or comment cards at the beginning of class.
16. Use Post-It notes.
17. Give genuine praise.
18. “I noticed….”
19. Provide a model or example.
20. Invite students to give you feedback.
Ibraheem Kadhom Faroun, thank you for sharing your views. I agree that these 20 ideas are useful when teachers are giving feedback to their students, and encouraging them. My question was related to the issue when students are giving feedback to their teachers, and how teachers can use this feedback. But I see that that when creating a good learning environment, it is also important to think the ways how teachers are giving feedback to their students.
Buenas tardes,
Si somos consecuentes con el tan conocido reto de que “el estudiante es el centro del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje”, debemos, sin dudas, tener en cuenta sus posiciones y opiniones sobre todo el proceso. Existen un grupo importante de técnicas para propiciar la participación que pueden ayudar, entre ellas utilizo mucho: la lluvia de ideas, Positivo, Negativo e Interesante (PNI), la tan conocida DAFO (Debilidades, Amenazas Fortalezas y Oportunidades), “La meta”, “El tiro al blanco", “Mi regalo””, etc…
Siempre sobre la base de que los estudiantes puedan dar su opinión sin ser censurados, para ello deben sentirse libres, anónimos, con una relación interpersonal de colaboración con el docente. etc.
Mohammed Jawad Kadhum Alsalami and Arasay Padrón Alvarez, thank you for sharing your views.
En el proceso de retroalimentacion del estudiante se asimila con mas fundamento el aprendizaje adquirido, ya que la respuesta a los conocimientos se hace de manera personalizada o grupal, se establecen juegos interactivos donde se connota todo lo visto en el proceso educativo. Ellos responden y se despejan dudas acorde a lo que se planteee.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09650792.2018.1426470?journalCode=reac20
Gloria esperanza Gamboa and Bruno De Lièvre, thank you for sharing your views. The article that Bruno has sent is useful. It explores secondary school teachers' experiences about student feedback but it includes some useful ideas also for higher education context.
The students' feedback can be used as input for reflection after the class which can result in more professionalism
Student feedback must be considered through several filters. One is Truth. If the feedback given was not true, the instructor should take appropriate actions to address it. I once taught a class at 1:00PM, right after most of the students in the class had a one-hour break between their last morning class and my class. Several students complained in their evaluations of me at the end of the course that I was "always late for class." Since several students said it, the dean assumed it was true and asked me why I was often late for class. I was NEVER late for class! I decided to start documenting my arrival time in the classroom. I discovered that no matter how early I was, 5, 10, 15, 20, or even 30 minutes before time for the class to start, there were always students there, waiting. Apparently when they finished lunch, they came to the classroom, and if they had to wait for me very long, they became impatient and perceived that as me being late for class! I pointed out to the students that their being early did not mean I was late, and I documented my arrival time through the entire next year, but those false student evaluations saying that I was often late for class still became part of my permanent record.
You may use a nominal scale to ask your students about the interpretations you came to. Just ask them.
A teacher should always use different lenses in the process of teaching and learning. One of these lenses is students' eyes. That means a teacher has to adjust teaching as per the feedback received from the side of his or her students!
Hossein Navidinia , Kassim Boudjelal Safir and Solomon Mengistie, thank you for sharing your views. I agree with Solomon Mengistie that it is important that teachers are able to take students' roles, and are reflecting teaching from their students¨viewpoints and eyes.
Linda Mayfield thank you for sharing your experiences. I think that your expariences describe very well that sometimes students are doing false evaluations. This is an important point, and it is good that you lifted this up in the discussion.
This is a great question, we (teachers) deal with students feedback differently. I personally believe it is a very good way to to evaluate our teaching and leaderships styles.. I totally agree with @Anders Norberg's Answer.
I agree with many of the comments made. I feel remaining open and being flexible is key for all of us to take feedback in a constructive manner.
Halmat Faieeq D Mahmood and Jaime Díaz-Ocejo thank you for sharing your views. I agree with Jaime that many answers and comments in this discussion have been very interesting, and that remaining open for feedback is one key issue when dealing with the feedback. I agree with Halmat that this discussion has shown how differenty teachers deal with student feedback.
I generally ask those who I teach, in my youth work role, what they understood easiest and whether it was how it was delivered or what was delivered. It's allowed me to be more flexible and to introduce more ideas that are relevant but also to keep on target.
Ways to Provide Effective Feedback
1. Feedback should be educative in nature.
2. Feedback should be given in a timely manner.
3. Be sensitive to the individual needs of the student.
4. Ask the 4 questions.
What can the student do? What can’t the student do?
How does the student’s work compare with that of others?
How can the student do better? et’ for achievement.
5. Feedback should reference a skill or specific knowledge.
6. Give feedback to keep students ‘on target’ for achievement.
7. Feedback can be given verbally, non-verbally, or in written form.
8. Concentrate on one ability or skill.
9. Alternate due dates for your students/classes.
10. Educate students on how to give feedback to each other.
11. Ask another adult to give feedback.
12. Have the student take notes.
13. Use a notebook to keep track of student progress.
14. Return tests, papers, or comment cards at the beginning of class.
15. Use Post-It notes.
16. Give genuine praise.
17. “I noticed….”
18. Provide a model or example.
19. Invite students to give you feedback.
Thank you for sharing your views, Benjamin Rastrick and Ibraheem Kadhom Faroun
@Raimo kaasila Sir, in my own view, aside the feed back gotten after each lesson to assess the level of assimilation of the students which is a win-win situation. It is advisable for a teacher to design a questionnaire for his students to answer AF the end of the term or semester in other to take evaluation of him/er self for improvement and personal development.
Ahmad Muhammad Abbas Thank you for sharing your views. I agree that it is useful to give students a questionaire. We have used the questionnaire in different Faculties at our university, and during this spring it will developed so that it would measure yet in a better the quality of teaching.
@Raimo kaasila Sir, I will be elated having update on how the further study looks like. And if possible with the sample questionnaire, many thanks in anticipation.
Ahmad Muhammad Abbas thank you for sharing your views. In our university,
students are evaluating the quality of teaching and courses by responding to the questionnaire (where it is used the Likert scale). Below, there are some examples about the items of the questionnaire:
I achieved the course learning outcomes and course objectives.
The course content supported my progression towards expertise in my field.
Teaching methods supported learning and helped me to achieve learning outcomes.
Course material supported my learning.
There was enough support and guidance in the course.
Assessment methods and criteria supported my learning.
Evaluate your workload during the course (1 ECTS = 27 h student work, including contact teaching).
I have tried to advance my own learning outside the lectures (e.g. reading the lecture material, reading some literature connected to the topic or searching more information).
I have tried to advance my own learning during the lectures by discussing the topic with other students, by asking questions from the lecturer, by starting discussion in the whole group or questioning the teaching.?
Good practices in the course.
Things to develop.
Students are keen observers. They can point out some good remarks which are meaningful. I cannot say all remarks are good. Their feedback is very essential for updating our teaching-learning. Teaching is meant for learners. If they are satisfied in learning then OK. Otherwise, we have to find the causes of their dissatisfaction in learning. It depends on our attitude, in which sense we receive their feedbacks!
Pravat Kumar Dhal thank you for sharing your views. You lifted up many good points. I completely agree that it depends on our attitude, in which sense we receive student feedback.
…
In my own of view to use student feedback to improve teaching, teacher prepare some quiz reference students experience and related with the subject, prepare and apply contextual and communicative learning and prepare work sheet and ask the students work in groups, note some feed back and presentation their feed back after that share to another group, teacher give students mark or rewards to the best students feed back, it is very useful for the students.
Rohana Syamsuddin thank you for sharing your views. You lifted up many good points. I completely agree with you that it is useful that teachers are giving their students mark or rewards on the basis of the best student feedback. This is a good practice.
Student evaluations should form an integral aspect in teaching. These can even be linked to the educator's performance standards, thereby, motivating the educator to continuously improve and raise the bar. I agree with Pravat Kumar Dhal
Dear Raimmo,
Teaching and learning activities, including formative and summative assessments, provide opportunities for teachers to gather evidence about students’ progress. This informs teacher feedback to students about their learning and what they need to do next to move forward. The evidence also provides feedback to teachers, allowing them to evaluate.
Student feedback informed teachers on the effectiveness of their practice and identified areas for future professional learning. Additionally, it opened up a dialogue around teaching and learning in the classroom, and gave the teachers insights into the unique challenges experienced by their students.
What is feedback in education?
· Considering feedback and its value and effectiveness in student learning, a substantial and growing body of research in higher education environments can be found. Feedback is considered as a vital approach to facilitate students’ development as independent learners in order to monitor, evaluate, and regulate their own learning (Ferguson, 2011)
How can feedback improve student learning?
· BACK TO CONTENTS3 Introduction The research is clear: improving feedback practices can significantly improve student learning and the quality of teaching in classrooms. Effective feedback practices provide the bridge between assessment and learning. High quality feedback can improve student learning by as much as eight months.
How effective is feedback in teaching?
· and the quality of teaching in classrooms. Effective feedback practices provide the bridge between assessment and learning. High quality feedback can improve student learning by as much as eight months. There’s a strong evidence base behind the impact of feedback. It is a cost-effective approach to enhancing
Three Ways to Use Student Feedback to Improve Your Course
Over the past five years, I’ve explored multiple ways of gathering student feedback to improve my course. Here are my top three:
1. Give surveys
Anonymous online surveys are one of the best ways to gather students’ perceptions of their professor and their own learning experiences. I often give students a survey in the middle and at the end of the semester, so I can tailor questions to specific activities. My guideline is to start with four (or less) rating questions to generate numerical data. Here’s a snippet from my May 2020 student survey: “On a scale of 1-5, how helpful were the weekly videos in connecting you to the class material?” and “What do you think about the workload in ENG 216 after going online?” If you are using Google forms as a platform, which I recommend, the responses are summarized in data tables and charts for easy analysis (see visual below).
I also include one open-ended question at the end of the survey to hear students’ point of view. I ask: “In the space below, please share what elements of the course you found to be helpful or unhelpful. Your input will help me improve this course.” I received 39 responses, and suggestions like the following are very useful to my course planning: “Put out more reminders since everything is online now,” “The whole system with Eli [a peer feedback online platform] got repetitive,” “Forums were really great to keep in touch with everyone, but responding to three people got a little bit redundant,” “I found the weekly videos to be especially helpful because if I missed a Zoom session, I could still catch up,” and “If I were to give some advice, jot down the names of the people who attended Zoom and give them attendance points.” These responses from students ask for small changes that can make a big impact.
To ensure you are receiving authentic student feedback, place a statement at the top of the survey stating its anonymity: “This survey response is anonymous, please don’t share your identity.” And, if you want students to complete the survey, keep it short, don’t exceed five questions, and avoid giving more than two surveys per semester.
2. Initiate a small group instructional feedback (SGIF) session
Using SGIF, professors will get a general checkup report, like an “after visit summary” from the doctor’s office. Having a SGIF session is when a facilitator (often another faculty member) and a recorder visit your class while you step out, and it is often initiated as a mid-semester check-in so there’s enough time to implement positive change for the remaining semester; however, I’ve done SGIF sessions at the end of the semester and still generated useful feedback for future course planning. The purpose of SGIF is for the facilitator to gather information from students about their learning experience in your course. Students are placed in small groups and asked to free write and then discuss these questions (or some version of it): “What about this course has been most helpful to your learning?” and “What specific changes could the instructor, my classmates, and I make to improve my learning in this course?”
While the facilitator leads a whole group discussion, the recorder takes notes (all anonymous), which are later shared with you at the debrief, at which time teaching strategies are also discussed. Now, you will have a report of what students see as problematic or valuable and what concrete suggestions they offer for improving the course.
3. Conduct a focus group
Focused groups are often used for market research to assess a new product, but this technique can be retooled to assess the overall wellness of the class. Contrary to SGIF, the discussion in focus groups is facilitated by the professor (though a TA or outside person could facilitate). Focus groups could be initiated at any point in the semester, but I usually conduct it on the last day of class during our class party. I have students form a group of four to five to discuss three questions amongst themselves: How could this course be improved for next semester? What assignments should be kept? What assignments should be modified or deleted? Then, after 15 minutes of group chatting and notetaking, a reporter from each group reports their feedback aloud while I record on the board. When someone has a suggestion for improvement, I ask how many agree, and if there’s majority agreement, I ask what that change might look like. We then spend time designing this new idea together. I write all of this on the board and snap photos for my records.
Now that I’ve shared my top three strategies for gathering student feedback, what improvements do you want to see in your course? How might you consider getting feedback to target those improvements?
ANALYZING GROWTH AREAS TO IMPROVE TEACHING PRACTICE
Collaborate with a colleague: Ask a colleague or mentor to review the evaluation feedback with you—they can be really helpful in clarifying the feedback, and they can help you understand any topics or concepts from the feedback that you’re unfamiliar with. Here are some questions that may help you gain clarity as you consider your evaluator’s perspective:
· What data from the evaluation feedback provides evidence to support the recommendations for growth?
· What strategy or course of action did the evaluator suggest? Where can you get resources or information to help you implement this in your class?
· What additional strategies or actions might help you close the gap and grow your teaching skills for this identified improvement area?
Think about additional potential growth areas: Determine what data you already have for the growth area your evaluator identified. But it’s also important to remember that this person probably doesn’t see you teach every day, every week, or even every month, and so what they see is only a snapshot of your classroom reality—and though that snapshot may be accurate, it isn’t the whole picture of your daily teaching.
As you consider your evaluator’s feedback, ask yourself questions that might help you further examine your instructional practices to find growth areas:
· What specific evidence is my evaluator drawing on? Is it just one class, or might this be a pattern of teaching across all of my classes?
· What additional evidence do I already have (teaching videos, student work, written student reflections, etc.) that would help me with a more comprehensive review?
· What additional data might I need to collect? What might the data look like (teaching videos, student work, etc.)?
· What factors might be influencing my teaching and learning gaps?
· What resources might I need to further refine and improve my teaching practice for this area?
Analyze your data: Select an appropriate analysis tool. For example, if your teaching growth area encompasses using formative assessments to gauge student understanding, you might gather student work samples and analyze them using an analysis of student work tool such as this one developed by the Michigan Department of Education.
You can also gather and analyze data about your teaching by video recording a class session. Reviewing the footage can help you identify issues related to your growth area that you may need to address. Harvard’s Teacher Video Selfie is a handy guide for analyzing your videos of your teaching. And the Hawaii Lab Cohort’s Evidence Analysis Record can help you notice and describe data patterns and articulate your next steps to support your students’ learning.
Reflect on and extend your teaching practice: Take time to reflect. What did you learn from analyzing the data? What next steps might you take to work on your growth area?
Feedback can greatly influence our learning and growth as teachers. The purpose of teacher evaluation feedback is to guide you to improve your teaching, and engaging in the above steps can help you make sense of that feedback and then act on it.
Feedback strategies
Use the following feedback strategies with students:
- Use feedback sandwiches:
- positive comment
- constructive criticism with explanation of how to improve
- positive comment or contextual comment: X was good … because …. now/next time …
- Build reflection time into each lesson for feedback – teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher.
- Use catchy abbreviations:
- EBI: Even Better If
- HTI: How to Improve
- YNS: Your Next Steps
- WWW: What Went Well.
- Use a feedback sheet for students to record ‘What I did well’ and ‘What I need to do to improve’.
- Give students the opportunity at the feedback stage to write 1 or 2 questions they would like answered to support them in making the identified improvements.
- Record comments in a Learning Log - students can then refer to these comments before they complete similar exercises.
- Use symbols instead of writing too much.
- Use a feedback structure such as:
- find 2 successes against the success criteria: what students have achieved in relation to the learning intention/success criteria
- find the part of the work that has most scope for an immediate ‘jump’ (not simply the worst part)
- write a short prompt telling the student exactly what to do to this part of their work
- provide time for them to read, process and respond to your prompt.
Three and one marking
Three and one marking, based on the work of Shirley Clarke on formative feedback, has 4 stages:
Stage 1. At the very beginning of new work/ assignment/ enquiry explain to the class that you will be changing the way you will mark their written work, in order to help them make more progress in the future.
Stage 2. Read all of the student's written work through very carefully before making any annotation. Next, highlight 3 places in the writing where the student best met the learning intention/s of the activity. Then indicate (for example, with a star) one place where an improvement can be made to the original work.
Stage 3. Draw an arrow to a suitable place near the star and write a 'close the gap' prompt to support the student in making an improvement to their work. This can be provided in a variety of different forms:
- Reminder prompt - suitable for more able students. For example, 'Say more about …' or 'Explain why you think this is …'
- Scaffold prompt - suitable for most students as it provides more structure to improve the work. For example, a question: 'Can you explain why …?' or a directive: 'Describe some of the ….' or an unfinished sentence: 'She shows this by the way she …'
- Example prompt - particularly supportive of less able students. For example, 'Choose one of these statements and/or create your own.' (Provide 2 valid statements for the pupil to select from or use as a model).
Stage 4:
- Provide time in class to enable students to read and respond to the ‘close the gap’ comment.
- Use this time to follow up individual needs with 1 or 2 specific students ‘face to face’.
- Comment upon their improvement at the first available opportunity.
Feedback frames
When using a success criteria rubric, older students can complete a frame themselves before receiving feedback to help them become competent self-assessors.
Stars and stairs
The 'Stars and stairs' frame could be used with younger students. The teacher can draw a 'star' or 'stairs' (a jagged line) on the student's work - with the star indicating what the student is doing well and the stairs indicating steps needed to improve.
For older students, label one section with 'That's Good' for success and 'Now This' for improvement feedback. To monitor the actions students take, add a section where students note what they did with the feedback and identify one or more aspects that they think have really improved. This could be submitted with their improved work.
Feedback dialogue frame
Students complete the first part before receiving feedback. The teacher then provides the feedback on the form, and the student responds with the plan for what to do next. Source: Chappuis, (2012)
1. Details Name: Date: Assignment/ task: Feedback focus:
2. My opinion [student]: - My strengths are: - I think I need to work on:
3. Feedback [teacher]: Strengths: Work on:
4. My plan [student]: What I will do now
Teacher feedback form
Student name: Title of work: Conference time:
1. Some things you did successfully: 2. Some things you could improve on: 3. Next steps: (Note: keep this feedback form to refer to as you revise your work.)
Peer feedback form
Your name: Peer reviewer's name: Title of project: Two compliments about the work are: Two suggestions about the work are: (Note: have the peer reviewer use 'I' statements for this step: - I would like to know more about... - I am not sure what this means... - I would like to know more details about...) Any other ideas or comments: (Note: keep this form to refer to as you revise the work.)
Traffic light feedback
Show feedback with a 'traffic light' motif - green (good), amber (okay) or red (incorrect). To do this, create a table with 5 columns and a row for each success criteria. Title the columns: Success criteria, Date, Feedback (this is where you include the traffic light), Action taken (to be completed by student) and Completed. (Source: Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010)
References:
Diamond, Miriam Rosalyn. “The usefulness of structured mid-term feedback as a catalyst for change in higher education classes.” Active Learning in Higher Education 5, no. 3 (2004): 217-231.
Mandouit, Luke. “Using student feedback to improve teaching.” Educational Action Research 26, no. 5 (2018): 755-769.
https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/three-ways-to-use-student-feedback-to-improve-your-course/
https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-new-teachers-can-use-evaluation-feedback-improve
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/Pages/insight-feedback.aspx
https://www.education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/teacher-quality-and-accreditation/strong-start-great-teachers/refining-practice/feedback-to-students/feedback-practices-and-strategies
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1105282.pdf
- Clarke, S (2003). Enriching Feedback in the primary classroom. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
- Chappuis, J (2012, September). Leadership for Learning: How am I doing? Educational Leadership, 70(1).
- Fisher, D. & Frey, N (2012). Making time for feedback. Educational Leadership, 70 (1).
- Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1).
- Stiggins, R. J., Arter, J. A., Chappuis, S., & Chappuis, S. (2004). Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it right - Using it well. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
hope this is useful
best wishes for your project
Sandeep
Sandeep Savitaprakash Sharma Thank you for sharing your views. You have done impressive work because your reply includes so many fundamental and important issues. I have read some of the articles that you proposed, and they are very useful. Thank you for very valuable contribution for this discussion.
The feedback of "all" the students, of a certain course, is usually given at the end of the course by them answering a questionnaire in order to receive the grades of that course on-line. I have been against this method of evaluation because we cannot be sure that "all" the students are "scientific" enough & "mature" enough to evaluate well. I suggested, at RG, long time ago that evaluation has to be done by "part" of the students , e.g. sophomore & above, and those who scored an average of 80% & above. There will be more credibility of such evaluation.
Before my retirement, I was evaluated very well by my students especially when a secretary gave them the questionnaire paper while I am out of the classroom for no more than 10 minutes and then back to lecture but there was once a joke. In answering a question about my presence or absence in that lecture, about 30% of the students answered that I was absent !! How come that a scholar can count on such "weak" students to evaluate her/him ?
Nizar Matar thank you for sharing your views and experiences. Your answer brings an interesting, new aspect to this discussion. You argued that we cannot be sure that all the students are "scientific" enough & "mature" enough to evaluate enough well the quality of teaching. I am curious to see what other participants of this discussion think about this argument.
Bazar Dzhumaevich Ulugov thank you for sharing your views. I agree with you and
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Student feedback is very useful in improving teaching materials, methods and assessments. However, the feedback need to be sincere and unbiased
Abdullah Sikar Al-Issawi thank you for sharing your views. I agree with you that Mohaned Abd Alrahman shared good ideas.
Tareq Al-Momani Thank you for sharing your views. I agree with you that Anders Norberg proposed many great ideas.
Student feedback informed teachers on the effectiveness of their practice and identified areas for future professional learning. Additionally, it opened up a dialogue around teaching and learning in the classroom, and gave the teachers insights into the unique challenges experienced by their students.
S J Malik Thank you for sharing your views. They inlude many good points. I completely agree with you that student feedback gives the teachers insights into the unique challenges experienced by their students. As teachers, we have to know students' preconceptions and possible misconceptions, and student feedback helps us to see if the course has promoted students to understand the main contents.
Vadim S. Gorshkov
Thank you for sharing your views about the previous educational system in your country, and about the current change in the educational paradigm. Your reply gives interesting context to this discussion, and show how the role of student feedback has changed in a significant way from past to present.
Hassan Izzeddin Sarsak
Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. I agree that students' satisfaction surveys are useful tools.
Check https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09650792.2018.1426470
Also check https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=podimproveacad
Anonymous online surveys are one of the best ways to gather students’ perceptions of their professor and their own learning experiences. .. often give students a survey in the middle and at the end of the semester, so ... can tailor questions to specific activities. .. guideline is to start with four (or less) rating questions to generate numerical data. Here’s a snippet from a 2020 student survey: “On a scale of 1-5, how helpful were the weekly videos in connecting you to the class material?” and “What do you think about the workload in ENG 216 after going online?” If you are using Google forms as a platform, which ... recommend, .... https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/three-ways-to-use-student-feedback-to-improve-your-course/
And https://www.magnapubs.com/product/program/how-can-i-use-student-feedback-to-improve-my-teaching/
Chinaza Godswill Awuchi Thank you for sharing the 3 links. They are very useful. Universities are using different surveys for gathering student feedback, and the survey that you have sent fits well for this purpose.
Students' comments allow the teacher to correct mistakes they may make during their work. Teachers cannot forget that their work is with emotionally constituted human beings and the emotions that emerge in students because of their performance must be taken into account. Without feedback the work with the individuality of the students is not possible. Neither can the treatment of the group and its needs be neglected, so that also the observation of the group as a whole is necessary. Teachers should not only take into account verbal language but also non-verbal language which often expresses more than verbal language because students cannot always regulate their gestures in which they express emotions.
Walfredo González Hernández Thank you for sharing many important ideas. I agree with you that emotions and the role of the group play a central role when considering student feedback. You mentioned also non-verbal language. This is very good point because it is also a central part of the feedback process.
Raimo Kaasila Non-verbal language is very difficult to control and at the age of our students it is almost impossible. A good teacher observer can get effective feedback if he/she can "read" the students' faces. This can say more than several surveys and interviews. This is one of the bases of affective computing.
When my colleagues and I used to teach, we gave out evaluation sheets, and 99% of the time, they praised us. Sometimes there were constructive suggestions, but they were more 'you could include more of' (whatever they liked) rather than suggest that we gave less of a certain section of our presentations.
But, because we (nurse practitioners) spent more time giving people on our caseload advice either in a clinic or at their homes, and less time teaching, we found teaching quite exhausting. It was usually for either half a day or a full day.
So, when we were recovering after becoming quite tired, at the end of a long session, complimentary 'happy sheets' as we called them, were a real 'pick me up'! And made us enthusiastic about the next session.
Mary C R Wilson Thank you for sharing your views, and bringing additional value for this discussion. Your idea about 'happy sheets' sounds very interesting. They surely can improve positive mood, and give more motivation for the next sessions.
How to measure Soft Skills? Article Can a Skill be Measured or Assessed? 6-Level Skills Developm...
I think no matter how well-designed a course, it has some shortcomings absolutely. The students' feedback allows us to see and make up for existing shortcomings. However, this does not mean that all feedback is necessary. Some may irrelevant (or useless). Lecturers must decide whether they are really necessary.
İlker Dere Thank you for sharing your views. You presented very good points. I agree with you that lecturers have to separate relevant and irrelevant feedback from each other. It does not make sense to react to irrelevant feedback. All lecturers have received also such feedback sometimes.
Raimo Kaasila, Some feedback may be manipulative and it can be make matters worse while trying to be helpful. This is mostly proven by experience. For example, in teaching English, feedback may be headache (particularly regarding self-confident) for learners, but in my field, social studies education, it has a priceless effect.
İlker Dere Thank you for continuing this discussion, and giving additional value for it by sharing your views. I agree with you that feedback can sometime be valuable and sometimes it can in a negative way impact self-confidence. If some students have a bad day, even this can reflect in their feedback. I also see that lecturers can teach their students to give such feedback that is relevant for developing teaching.
I think most of students are read to success, small percentage of students are read to learn as a result they seek easy way to pass. so the teachers must be very careful to change according to their feedback.
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