Feedback for Improvement

Modelling the Feedback Cycle

The middle of the semester is the perfect time to plan for that end of semester task: the Student Assessment of Instruction.

SAIs sometimes elicit unclear or contradictory statements from students. One student may complain the class is unorganized and the instructor plays favorites while another praises the teacher for the clear instruction and treating everyone fairly. And if only a small percentage of the class does the SAI, the information is even less useful.

The key to getting more participation and more honest and useful responses from student at the end of the semester is to get them used to giving and processing feedback throughout the semester. Mid-course feedback can be as simple as asking three questions (What should we Start, Stop, and Continue doing?), setting up an anonymous survey similar to the SAI in D2L, or using something like Brookfield's Critical Classroom Incident Questionnaire which asks when students feel most and least engaged.

The most important part is to then process the feedback with students. Making appropriate changes based on their input shows students how the feedback cycle works for their benefit.