student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Student Feedback & Leadership
This suggests that for a multi-level leadership approach to student feedback
to be effective, there is need for formal leaders to take action that is congruent
with policy decisions in order to develop shared understanding about policy
and its implementation. There is also a need for systems and infrastructure
to support implementation. For this to occur there is a need for DEVOLVED
LEADERSHIP in which power and authority to implement policy is given to the
teaching academics. These staff may not hold formal leadership positions but,
as they are responsible for learning and teaching and thus for student
feedback, they do hold informal leadership roles in student feedback.
This is illustrated in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Distributed Leadership Model Element One: Devolved Leadership
Shared
Understanding
DEVOLVED
LEADERSHIP
Congruent Action
Systems & Infrastructure
In applying this model to the experience in Cycle One the following
reflections emerged:
1. The Plenary did provide an opportunity for a vertical slice of the University
leadership to discuss their role in responding to student feedback.
Emerging issues for leadership in student feedback that were
identified by participants at the Plenary included:
––
the need to adopt a positive approach to leadership in the use
of student feedback rather than a culture of blame on individual
teachers.
––
cultural change leadership takes time.
––
the importance of ensuring an equitable balance between financial
returns and resources for quality learning and teaching.
– – the importance of comparing data using a consistent
systems approach.
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