How do we know how we're doing as teachers? How do we know if our lessons are effective? One really valuable way is to get feedback from our main stakeholders -- the students.
There are lots of ways to get feedback from students such as having a suggestion box in the classroom, quick feedback forms after each lesson, asking our learners informally in class about their experiences, plus plenty more. This year I've been gathering feedback from my students through anonymous surveys. I wanted to make it anonymous in the hope that students would feel free to be honest. I used a free and simple survey tool with mostly open-ended questions like "What did you like/appreciate about the course?" and "What didn't you like about the course?" requesting them to be as specific as they can.
Here are some of the results from my most recent survey:
Positive feedback!
I love the discussion part at the beginning of our class. It's fun to hear from others.
I learned professional essay writing. That's really helpful!
Painful feedback
class is a little boring
the online class was terrible.☹️ I perfer the traditional teaching.
Eye-opening feedback
I hope the teacher could illustrate a new writing type with more specific examples.
I think I probably need more specific feedback on my assignment
The results showed that there were reasons to celebrate and changes to make. Administering the survey is one thing, receiving the data and putting it to use is quite another! If you're anything like me, you tend to fixate on the negative feedback and brush over the positive. Armed with criticism, I head directly into "improvement mode" or else just stew in defensiveness or self-pity.
Realising that this approach is not the healthiest, I've come up with some advice (for myself, but perhaps it could also be helpful for others) for dealing with student survey feedback:
Celebrate the positive
First, celebrate the positive feedback that you receive. Really take time to soak in those affirming words. Enjoy the praise and know that your efforts have not been wasted.
Don't be consumed by the negative
It is very tempting to dwell on the comments about what the students didn't like or wanted changing and use them as the main data. This can be disheartening and even frustrating, especially when the feedback goes against our own beliefs about our teaching. Sometimes I feel misunderstood when reading critical comments. Noticing and labeling "feedback triggers" can help get beyond defensiveness and lead to a more measured response.
Make a plan
I find it helpful to summarise and categorise the feedback on a single page. From there, I can make a plan for the next semester or teaching block. I note the things that I want to continue doing and the aspects I want to change. Sometimes these are easy. For example, students liked the discussion time in each lesson so I will continue that. Or students wanted more specific examples of writing types that I introduce -- that's an easy fix. Other aspects are less straightforward. For example, how to make my online lessons more engaging needs more thought and discussion with colleagues.
I confess I am sometimes reluctant to ask students for feedback for fear of hearing something hurtful. However, speaking from experience (as someone with rather thin skin!) I can say that the benefits definitely outweigh the discomforts. There are several aspects of my teaching and lessons that I've adjusted after getting feedback from students. Cult of Pedagogy has an excellent article that I found helpful in explaining the benefits of student feedback as well as giving practical advice on how to collect and act on the results.
- Do you get feedback from your students?
- What have you learned from it?
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