A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Evaluating courses and teaching
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dismissing unwelcome feedback too readily, or dwelling gloomily on less favourable
comment to the neglect of those features of teaching which have attracted praise.
In circumstances such as these, calling on the ‘second opinion’ of a seasoned teaching
colleague can provide a much-needed counterweight. Second, specialist help may
often be required in analysing and interpreting findings – and especially so when a
standardised student questionnaire has been used and results for different individuals
are being compared. Research at the London School of Economics (Husbands, 1996)
draws attention to the complexity of the issues raised. Third, the interrelationship of
information and action is far from unproblematic. Good feedback does not in itself result
in better teaching, as US experience has suggested (McKeachie, 1987; Brinko, 1990).
Improvements in teaching were found to be much more likely when university teachers
not only received feedback but could draw on expert help in exploring how they might
best capitalise upon strengths and address weaknesses.
Interrogating practice
In your department, what happens to feedback data from student questionnaires?
Is it made public to the students involved? How do staff analyse,
review and act upon the findings from this source? How are students
informed about changes made in response to their views?
ACTING ON FEEDBACK
This last point is a crucial one, especially given that not all university teachers will have
easy access to a teaching-learning centre or educational development unit offering
specialist guidance and support. It is therefore important to acknowledge that acting on
feedback constructively entails recognition of its practical limitations. Sometimes
feedback produces unclear results which only further investigation might help to resolve,
or it may be necessary to explore a variety of possible ways of both interpreting and
responding to a given issue or difficulty.
Three examples may help to illustrate this. In the first of these, feedback on a series of
lectures has indicated that many students experienced difficulties with audibility. But
where exactly might the problem lie? Was it attributable to poor acoustics in the lecture
theatre, or was it because many of the students were reluctant to sit in the front rows, or
because the lecturer spoke too softly or too rapidly? And what would be the most
appropriate response: installing a microphone and speakers, encouraging the students
to sit nearer the front, better voice projection and clearer diction by the lecturer, or greater
use of PowerPoint slides and handouts, so that students were less reliant on the spoken
voice?