Student Feedback in the Evaluation of Teaching

Starter Item

Many HE institutions use student feedback to provide data for the evaluation of teaching . The feedback may be obtained either through the use of questionnaires or through discussion and interview with students. (The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University, USA, provides a good discussion on Student Ratings and the Evaluation of Teaching. An outline of a variety of Feedback Methods, including qualitative methods, is available from the Nottingham Trent University web site).

The method by which student feedback is obtained and the use of this feedback in the evaluation of their teaching is a very emotive issue to many lecturers. Some would question the validity and reliability of student feedback and whether this serves any useful purpose at all. Nevertheless, in some institutions it is a requirement for teaching staff to obtain student feedback during the academic year. They may also be required to use prescribed methods and tools, such as a standard questionnaire. Such feedback may play an important part in staff appraisal and raises the question of "ownership" of student feedback data. Should a staff member be the one who receives student feedback data and decide on how it is to be used? Indeed, should the lecturer be the one who decides whether student feedback should be obtained at all and, if so, the form this should take?

What has been your experience in the use of student ratings and/or qualitative comment in the evaluation of teaching? What are your views on the use of student feedback in evaluating your teaching and the methods by which this is obtained?

Links to relevant sites are available in a new section in Deliberations on Evaluation of Teaching and Courses.

Summary of Readers' Comments

Search deliberations-forum archive - July/Aug 1999 - for the full text of readers' comments.

1. "student feedback in the evaluation of teachers is very sensitive....(but)...they are valuable and valid tools."
2. "students can, on the whole, recognise quality in teaching and learning and make reasoned judgements about it."
3. Questionnaire return rates can be low, tendency for only ends of the spectrum of views represented. It has been suggested that questionnaires be done during review classes or during normal class time. Some work is being done on using the web for student feedback questionnaires (see comments by Christina Ballantyne in the deliberations-forum archive).
4. "I don't believe that tinkering with the design of the questionnaire is the important issue. It's the way that it is administered and used that is often crucial". Another reader commented that "students sometimes have difficulty disentangling what should be separate views of two aspects of a module " so questionnaire design should be an important issue.
5. Another important approach to the evaluation of one's teaching which was highlighted was peer observation and feedback.