Course Evaluations: Helping Students Reflect on Their Feedback. April 3, 2013 By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog I always hesitate to do posts on student ratings. Every teacher has opinions, a lot of which aren’t supported by the research. But this post is on a topic about which there is little disagreement. Students don’t take the process all that seriously, especially now that they complete rating forms online. Few take the time to provide teachers with quality feedback. Yes, students can learn from activities that involve them in providing instructional feedback, especially if it’s focused on their learning experiences in class.
The trick is coming up with feedback activities that garner these benefits and I just found a great example. How would you describe your ideal professor? The article is worth reading for the quotes excerpted from the student papers alone. There are lots of potential spin-offs from an activity framed around these questions. Please share the ways you collect, respond to, and use feedback from students. Tradeoff Method.
Sean Tanner, Public Policy Soliciting useful student feedback can be difficult. At best, the data from a poor feedback instrument will be disregarded as noise; at worst, it will cause the GSI to make unproductive choices in her future teaching jobs. A typical Likert-scale survey item might ask how strongly the student agrees or disagrees with the statement “My GSI used classroom time effectively.” If the median response is “somewhat disagree,” what should the GSI do about it? If the GSI decides to put more effort toward classroom preparation, she will need to reduce the amount of effort spent on some other aspect of teaching. Which part of teaching should get cut back?
Last semester, I experimented with a method of collecting student feedback that would force the students to make tradeoffs in my time and effort. With the data from this form, I was able to get a far richer picture of student preferences than a simple Likert-scale questionnaire would have allowed. Eliciting formative feedback from students | Cape Breton University - Teaching and Learning Centre. Have you ever felt, even after careful planning, that what you are doing in the classroom just isn’t working? We all make mistakes, we try strategies that don’t work as planned, and teaching can improve a great deal if we actively seek out student comments and make adjustments in teaching strategies, even in mid-course.
Formative feedback from students can enhance the teaching and learning experience for both instructors and students. The following suggestions will help instructors to elicit student feedback throughout their courses: Preparation Determine what requires feedback. For example, do you want to know how well students are learning the material, or are you interested in gauging the effectiveness of your teaching strategies? Rationale: Summative feedback from students at the end of the course does not benefit the students providing the feedback, so students’ responses may be cursory. Providing opportunities for remediation on an ongoing basis enhances the quality of the course. Getting_feedback. Getting Immediate Student Feedback the Plus/Delta Way. November 2, 2011 By: Susan Codone, PhD in Teaching and Learning Professors teach in a vacuum; we enter the classroom, deliver our lessons, and leave, and rarely get any feedback on the quality of our instruction before the end of the semester when formal faculty evaluations are completed by students.
Other than grades on tests and other assessments, we really don’t know for sure if students are learning what we are teaching, and we often don’t have a good handle on whether our instruction is working. This semester I have one student who thanks me every time he leaves class. I’m not sure of his motivation, but the impact of his words makes me feel that he values the class and what we do there. The other 19 students leave without saying a word, which I find frustrating. I want to know more about what they experience in class and if they too find it valuable.
That’s why I like to use something called a “plus/delta” evaluation. It’s not a perfect solution, of course. Exit Cards. I spend time over at Mary Frazier’s helpful A Chat with Mary site and was recently reminded of a great strategy that encourages deep thinking and helps teachers assess learning. The strategy is called Exit Cards. I had the chance to learn more about the idea several years ago while working with teachers on differentiated instruction and still use it.
I’m also re-reading the book Brain Rules by John Medina and am in the section that talks about using structured repetition to encourage long-term memory. Everything that the brain research says about how learning takes place supports the idea of exit cards. The strategy is a very simple one but is also a very effective way to help kids retain information. The added bonus is that you gain data that helps you gauge students’ understanding. This can lead to re-teaching, to compacting the curriculum or to individualized instruction with specific students. So how does it work? What was the most important thing you learned today? Have fun! Feedback. Improving Your Teaching: Obtaining Feedback. Adapted from Black (2000) Center for Research on Learning and Teaching Just as students benefit in their learning from receiving your comments on their papers and assignments, you may find it beneficial in improving your teaching to receive feedback from your students.
The more information that you gather about your teaching the more you can make informed changes that will be beneficial both to your students and to you as you develop as a teacher. There are several sources of information that you can use: student feedback, self evaluation, peer observation, viewing a videotape of your teaching, and consultation with a staff member at CRLT or with someone from your department. Student Feedback Receiving student feedback in the middle of the semester can help you know what you are doing that facilitates the learning of the students and it will help make you aware of any difficulties they may be having with your instruction. Get written feedback. Self Reflection Peer Observation References. Feedback to Instructor. Stumme_2.
Strategies for Effective Feedback - JCU. Contents: Strategies for Effective Feedback How do I provide feedback? When do I provide feedback? Strategies for Effective Feedback Price and O’Donovan (2006) suggest that effective feedback starts with a set of explicit criteria and standards that the student understands, and which form the basis for both feedback and evaluation. Students need to be encouraged to engage actively with these criteria and standards throughout their placement and with feedback provided by the workplace educator, other staff or other students. Your goal as a workplace educator is to deliver feedback in a respectful and constructive manner, which will help the student learn and develop.
Back to top An acronym to help remember how to give effective feedback is "CORBS": Clear; Owned; Regular; Balanced; and Specific (Hawkins & Shohet, 1989). Feedback that is effective will: Please remember that no matter how well you give feedback, individuals will react differently to your comments. How do I provide feedback? Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback. Human Resources | Performance Development -- Giving Effective Feedback: a 4-part Model. Giving Effective Feedback. Home » Resources » Leadership Exercises & Tips » Leadership Skills » Giving Effective Feedback Giving Effective Feedback One of a leader's responsibilities is to create and utilize a forum for open, constructive communication in which feedback is one important aspect. Feedback is communicating to a member or group(s) how their behavior has affected us or other people.
Effective feedback can (1) be heard by the receiver; (2) keep the relationship intact, open and healthy; and (3) validate the feedback process in future interactions. Effective feedback, both positive and negative, is helpful to others. When you give feedback you are offering valuable information that will be useful to another person making decisions about how to behave. Feedback is not criticism. It is specific rather than general. Feedback for Learning:Seven Keys to Effective Feedback.