Complete thesis - Murdoch University

also examined. Reports from this activity and the School Review undertaken in 2005 werealso included in the documents scrutinised.5.3.3 Student feedbackFeedback from students provides opportunities for participants to raise issues and concerns.Formal feedback is based on University-supported instruments through the Institutional Researchand Evaluation Service of the Teaching and Learning Centre. The Student Survey ofUnit (SSU) is the primary formal questionnaire used in this research (Murdoch, 2004b). Adescription is provided in Appendix B.In addition, the School of Engineering instituted, early in the development of it’s programmes,that every year group of students is surveyed for each unit in which they are enrolled, twicea semester. This School-based, open-question survey, is administered by another member ofstaff (ie one not teaching any unit for that student cohort). The comments resulting fromthis source are collated (by a designated Year Co-ordinator), presented and actioned at astaff meeting. Feedback from decisions made there are returned to students, again by theYear Co-ordinator, usually within two weeks of the survey administration. A sample fromthis survey is included in Appendix B.Formal feedback was also available in the form of comments and issues raised in the assessmentelements. The prime component is the Performance Review document, discussed elsewhere.Others, less formal, include Management Reports in the follow-on unit, emails and generaldiscussions in class.5.3.4 Teaching styleStudent engagement with the learning environment and potential for success in it is foundedon a net of influences made up, not just of learner style and features of the learning environment,but also of teacher characteristics and teaching methods. As a final note oninstruments, therefore a teacher-focused perspective is provided.Philosophers and educational theorists postulate that individuals will generally be guidedin their thinking about most things, including the processes of teaching and learning, bythe principles of the dominant experiences from which their knowledge has thus far beenconstructed. Smyth (2003) provides the following examples:• if a teacher’s description of a preferred teaching strategy is didactic and rigid thenit is usually premised on the teacher controlling the learning environment. This is240