The impact of student feedback on teaching in higher education

Receiving feedback from students has become a normal part of life for university teachers worldwide. This puts pressure on them from several sides and may be an influential factor that leads them to tailor their teaching to students’ preferences. The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of student feedback and how it affects their teaching choices. A survey was sent out to all teachers at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The study found that student feedback is perceived positively by university teachers, has a large impact on their teaching and helps improve courses. Student feedback pushes teaching in the direction of fewer lectures and more tutorials, seminars and case studies. Teachers receiving negative student feedback experience more negative feelings related to the feedback, and are also more likely to introduce unjustified changes to their teaching in order to please students. These teachers also tend to have less teaching experience. However, a very large majority of teachers have a high level of professional pride and integrity and do not make (as they perceive them) unjustified changes to their teaching.     

Teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation of teaching: purposes and uses in clinical education

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) only becomes an effective tool for improving teaching and learning when the relevant stakeholders seriously consider and plan appropriate actions according to student feedback. It is common practice in medical education to provide clinical teachers with student feedback. However, there is limited evidence about how teachers in higher education, and medical education in particular, systematically apply student feedback to improve the quality of their teaching practice. The focus of this case study was to examine clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to SET with respect to its purposes and uses for enhancing their teaching. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from the clinical coaches. These clinical coaches perceived the main purpose of student evaluation as quality assurance, and were moderately receptive to student feedback. Four key factors enabling or inhibiting their responses were revealed: institutional requirements, operational practices, personal biases and provision of support. Future research should further explore the interrelationships among the above factors as the core mechanism in influencing clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation.     

Using mid-semester course evaluation as a feedback tool for improving learning and teaching in higher education

The way in which mid-semester course evaluations are structured, administered and reported is important for generating rich and high-quality student feedback for the enhancement of learning and teaching. Mid-semester evaluations usually contain open-ended questions that trigger more elaborative feedback about what is going on in a class than that from end-of-semester evaluations with Likert scale-type questions. The anonymity of the process for students and the confidentiality of the process for instructors make the process more reflective for students and less stressful for instructors. This study describes how the mid-semester course evaluation process can be used as a feedback tool for improving the quality of teaching and learning at an institutional level. Through a longitudinal analysis of 341 mid-semester course evaluation reports, positive areas and areas of concern with respect to learning and teaching were identified, and changes in student evaluations over the years were examined meticulously to make an overall evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching at a non-profit Turkish university. This research showed that the value of mid-semester course evaluations can go beyond course-level if we use open-ended questions and are able to gather the reports together to make some comprehensive analysis at university level.     

学生学业评价：含义、作用与改革趋势

学生学业评价是学校教学质量评价的组成部分,是促进学生学习进步和帮助教师不断改善教学策略的重要手段。学生学业评价对于课程的实施具有很强的导向、激励和反馈作用。课程改革背景下的学生学业评价正在从单一的纸笔考试向多元的考核方法扩展,不仅关注学生的学业成绩,而且注重发现和挖掘学生多方面的潜能,提高学生的综合素质,旨在为学生的成长和健康发展提供全面的反馈信息。     

Good teaching: what matters to university students

Institutions assess teaching effectiveness in various ways, such as classroom observation, peer evaluation and self-assessment. In higher education, student feedback continues to be the main teaching evaluation tool. However, most of such forms include characteristics of good teaching that the institutions deem important and may not adequately reflect what students perceive to be good teaching. This study explored students' understandings of good teaching via a survey with students from two faculties at a Singapore university. Students were asked what characteristics they thought constituted the following categories of teaching: preparation and organization, knowledge, learning and thinking, enthusiasm and delivery. It was found that while distinct characteristics were highlighted for the first four categories, the last saw recurring characteristics of teacher attributes and teaching strategies. These two aspects weigh in significantly in the way students perceive whether the teacher is effective. The study has implications for teacher development programmes and the design of student evaluation forms for more accurate assessments of teacher ability and foci on areas of improvement. This study is potentially useful to teachers, as knowing the characteristics of teaching that matter to students could help teachers determine for themselves how to maintain or improve their performance in the classroom.     

Student evaluation of courses: what predicts satisfaction?

The main goals of course evaluations are to obtain student feedback regarding courses and teaching for improvement purposes and to provide a defined and practical process to ensure that actions are taken to improve courses and teaching. Of the items on course evaluation forms, the one that receives the most attention and consequently the most weight is the question, ‘Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this course.’ However, no attention has been placed on examining the predictors of students being ‘satisfied with the quality of this course’ overall. This study attempts to address this gap. The findings show that while student characteristics and reasons for enrolling in a course are predictors of overall satisfaction, it is the evaluation questions that predict the majority of the variation in course satisfaction. The findings also reveal that faculty‐selected optional questions are stronger predictors of overall satisfaction than compulsory questions.     

Using summative and formative assessments to evaluate EFL teachers’ teaching performance

Using classroom observations (formative) and student course experience survey results (summative) to evaluate English lecturers’ teaching performances is not new in practice, but surprisingly only a few studies have investigated this issue in a higher education context. This study was conducted in an English department of a large university in Vietnam. The data include: (1) semi-structured interviews with all the full-time lecturers, (2) two department heads and (3) course experience surveys from English as a foreign language (EFL) students (N?=?2886). Three lessons can be learned: (1) formative assessments do not seem to have an effect on promoting better teaching practices when their feedback is not helpful in improving high-stakes summative assessment results, (2) without sharing a common definition of good teaching practices among assessors, summative assessments appear to make the feedback from formative assessments less meaningful and applicable, and (3) as a result, the combination of formative and summative assessments tends to make EFL lecturers’ self-assessment practices less effective.     

Can you increase teacher engagement with evaluation simply by improving the evaluation system?

We know various factors can influence how teaching staff engage with student evaluation, such as institutional policies or staff beliefs. However, little research has investigated the influence of the technical processes of an evaluation system. In this article, we present a case study of the effects of changing the technical system for administering student evaluations at one New Zealand university. We develop a socio-technical model of the institutional evaluation system, and use this model to examine whether introducing an online system for ordering student feedback questionnaires and reducing processing time influenced academic staff engagement with evaluation. Survey responses, interview comments and data about ordering trends suggest the change did increase staff engagement by: (1) improving staff perceptions of evaluation and (2) increasing engaged behaviour, such as voluntarily ordering more evaluations. The outcomes of this study imply that the ‘practical implementation’ of an evaluation system is an important factor in influencing engagement with evaluation. We conclude that we can increase teacher engagement with evaluation simply by improving the ‘practical implementation’ of the evaluation system.     

The number of feedbacks needed for reliable evaluation. A multilevel analysis of the reliability,stability and generalisability of students’ evaluation of teaching

A multilevel analysis approach was used to analyse students’ evaluation of teaching (SET). The low value of inter-rater reliability stresses that any solid conclusions on teaching cannot be made on the basis of single feedbacks. To assess a teacher’s general teaching effectiveness, one needs to evaluate four randomly chosen course implementations. Two implementations are needed when one course is evaluated, and if one implementation is evaluated, up to 15 feedbacks are needed. The stability of students’ ratings is very high, which reflects students’ stable rating criteria. There is an obvious rating paradox: from the student’s point of view, each rating is very precise, stable and justifiable, but from the teacher’s point of view a single feedback reflects the quality of teaching to just a moderate extent. Cross-hierarchical analysis reveals that there are large discrepancies between the uses of rating scales; some students are systematically more lenient in their rating whereas others are systematically more severe. The study also reveals that some courses are generally rated more favourably and that some courses are more suitable for certain teachers. Managers can thus improve the quality of teaching by finding the most suitable courses for each teacher.     

Effects of a Theory-Based Feedback and Consultation Process on Instruction and Learning in College Classrooms

This study examined how midterm student ratings feedback provided to teaching assistants via a theory-based ratings instrument, combined with consultation on instructional practices, would affect teaching practices, ratings of teaching effectiveness, and student learning and motivation. The student ratings instrument that was employed focused on a series of instructional activities derived from Gagné's theory of instruction and Reiser and Dick's instructional model. Thirty-seven teaching assistants in undergraduate computer science and chemistry courses were randomly assigned to either a feedback + consultation group or a no-feedback group. Results of this study indicated that the feedback and consultation process had a significant impact on instructional practices and ratings of teaching effectiveness. Student learning and student motivation were positively correlated with the frequency with which the various instructional activities examined in this study were utilized. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Advancing text-analysis to tap into the student voice: a proof-of-concept study

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching and courses (SETs) are part of the fabric of tertiary education and quantitative ratings derived from SETs are highly valued by tertiary institutions. However, many staff do not engage meaningfully with SETs, especially if the process of analysing student feedback is cumbersome or time-consuming. To address this issue, we describe a proof-of-concept study to automate aspects of analysing student free text responses to questions. Using Quantext text analysis software, we summarise and categorise student free text responses to two questions posed as part of a larger research project which explored student perceptions of SETs. We compare human analysis of student responses with automated methods and identify some key reasons why students do not complete SETs. We conclude that the text analytic tools in Quantext have an important role in assisting teaching staff with the rigorous analysis and interpretation of SETs and that keeping teachers and students at the centre of the evaluation process is key.     

教师和学生对“学生评教”的看法调查

本研究调查了52位外语系教师和116名公共外语研究生对于“学生评教”的看法。结果显示,大部分师生赞成“学生评教”。他们认为这种做法在一定程度上可以提高教学质量。他们对其他问题的回答也给我们提供了有益的信息,有助于进一步完善评估体系。     

Online student evaluation improves Course Experience Questionnaire results in a physiotherapy program

This paper reports the use of an online student evaluation system, Course Experience on the Web (CEW), in a physiotherapy program to improve their Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) results. CEW comprises a course survey instrument modelled on the CEQ and a tailored unit survey instrument. Closure of the feedback loop is integral in the CEW system. Analysis of the data shows that the students’ evaluation in their final year of the program is closely correlated with their CEQ results. Increases in the CEQ scores from 2001–04 included an increase in the Good Teaching Scale (27.5), Generic Skills Scale (10.3) and Overall Satisfaction Index (29.3). By using CEW, academics at the School of Physiotherapy were able to determine students’ perceptions during the course, make changes to teaching and learning, where appropriate, in a timely manner and, as a result, the CEQ scores were improved markedly.     

课堂评定:学生学业评价的重要方式

随着基础教育学生评价改革的深化,学业考核已经向关注学习过程的形成性评价扩展。课堂评定作为形成性评价的一种重要方式,对于提高学生学习质量和改进教师教学方法具有重要的作用。课堂评定能够考查学生的知识理解、分析与推理、综合与批判、问题解决、学习方法和学习情感。教师可以通过书面反馈、课堂观察、学习日志和学生同伴检查来开展课堂评定。要提高课堂评定的有效性,教师应当清楚确定评价内容,运用多样化评价手段,精心组织评价活动,及时反馈和使用评定结果。     

基于网络的大学英语的学生评教体系研究

大学生基于网络的评价英语教学是高校重要的教学管理活动,但是从管理学原理分析目前大学生评价英语教学的评教体系存在指标内容不科学、评价主体不完整、评价结果反馈缺失、评价结果运用不足、配套网络设施落后等方面的问题。据此,提出相应改进建议,以期提高基于网络的大学生评价英语教学的准确性,提高英语教师教学质量。     

Whose feedback? A multilevel analysis of student completion of end-of-term teaching evaluations

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is now common practice across higher education, with the results used for both course improvement and quality assurance purposes. While much research has examined the validity of SETs for measuring teaching quality, few studies have investigated the factors that influence student participation in the SET process. This study aimed to address this deficit through the analysis of an SET respondent pool at a large Canadian research-intensive university. The findings were largely consistent with available research (showing influence of student gender, age, specialisation area and final grade on SET completion). However, the study also identified additional influential course-specific factors such as term of study, course year level and course type as statistically significant. Collectively, such findings point to substantively significant patterns of bias in the characteristics of the respondent pool. Further research is needed to specify and quantify the impact (if any) on SET scores. We conclude, however, by recommending that such bias does not invalidate SET implementation, but instead should be embraced and reported within standard institutional practice, allowing better understanding of feedback received, and driving future efforts at recruiting student respondents.     

How Do Faculty Make Formative Use of Student Evaluation Feedback?: A Multiple Case Study

This multiple case study explored faculty formative use of student evaluation feedback. Results were based on interviews of ten education faculty members at a midwestern research university and reviews of relevant documents. It was found that end of semester student evaluation, originally used for summative evaluation, was also used by faculty for teaching improvement purposes. Faculty cared for student evaluation feedback and used discretion in using the feedback to improve their teaching. Faculty also experienced anxiety and tensions in the context of a mandated summative evaluation. Variations were found in faculty use of evaluation feedback, as a result of difference in background and experience.     

高校如何提升学生评教效度? ——澳大利亚高校学生评教最大差异量规及其启示

学生评教是高校汇集学生反馈、监测教育教学质量的重要手段。传统的学生评教量规大多由管理者、教学论专家开发,学生依据现成量规的评教指标打分,完成对授课教师的评价,其优点是指标体系明确、操作方便、统计简单,问题是由管理者、教学论专家拟定的教学评价指标不能涵盖学生认为重要的指标。针对上述问题,澳大利亚学者提出最大差异量规,从课程与教学维度评价高校教师教学质量,采用最好-最差配对选择,使评教差异最大化,包括对高校教师课程与教学绩效的评价,还可以对评价量规本身的绩效-重要性程度进行评价,其结果能更有效地反映授课教师的教学质量,动态地反映学生本身的学习发展需求,提升高校学生评教的效度和价值,对提高我国高校学生评教的科学性有借鉴价值。     

Student performance in computing education: an empirical analysis of online learning in programming education environments

The benefits of using online exercises have been analysed in terms of distance learning, automatic assessment and self-regulated learning. In this study, we have not found a direct proportional relationship between student performance in the course exercises that use online technologies and the exam grades. We see that the average submission rate to these online exercises is not positively correlated with the exercise points. Yet, our results confirm that doing exercises along supports student learning and skill accumulation equipping them with the knowledge of programming. While the student performance in programming courses is affected by factors such as prior background in programming, cognitive skills and the quality of teaching, completing the course exercises via learning-by-doing is an indispensable part of teaching. Based on the student feedback from the course survey, the students are highly satisfied with using online technologies as part of learning.