Student feedback on teaching and courses is not the only form of feedback. Feedback should be considered in conjunction with others types of feedback such as:
- Peer reviews
- Teaching Observation
- Personal Reflections
What to do with student feedback
- Consider the feedback carefully by reviewing the evaluation results
- When reviewing responses identify the patterns that are emerge. Negative comments may be hurtful, but provide an opportunity to learn. Where negative comments are not useful to teaching and learning, put those comments aside.
- Close the feedback loop by discussing the overall feedback results with students: This can be done through presenting the major themes to students at the first class after the evaluation period. You can highlight points you are taking on board, points you disagree with, and points you don’t understand. You can also ask students to vote on whether or not they agree with a point or whether they think it is important.
- Discuss the feedback with a colleague or talk through the comments and your views on them with a colleague. Lecturers who discuss feedback are more likely to improve their teaching, when compared to teachers who review their feedback alone.
- Don’t take it personally: when students criticise teaching it can feel as if they are criticising you personally. Try to focus on what the feedback says about what you do (not about who you are).
The Carnegie Melon University, Eberly Centre has developed a useful resource by identifying a teaching problem and makes suggestions to solve it.
This resource may be helpful: