Feedback from students

The information you seek to gather from your student group, or from individual students will probably be different, depending on exactly what you are seeking to find out.

Focus: what is the focus of your investigation?

• Are you trying to get an overall sense of how it is going?
• Are there particular things you want to investigate (e.g. things that you are unhappy with, things that you are piloting)?
• Are you gathering information in preparation for making changes?

Methods: what methods will be most efficient, and most likely to generate helpful responses?

• Approach a group directly, ask a representative, or a number of key people
• Ask them to comment on specific themes or have an open-ended discussion
• Ask them in writing during class, by email or on post-it notes

Timing: when is the best time?

• at the end of a series of classes
• as a one-off enquiry
• on an on-going basis

The Tutoring and Demonstrating - A Handbook (Forster, Hounsell & Thompson, 1995), Chapter 10, ‘Feedback on Teaching’ provides a summary with examples.