by Jackie Tran, Pharm.D.,
PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, Howard County General Hospital
Going through pharmacy school, the biggest thorn in my side was filling out those end of the course/rotation evaluation forms.
These lengthy forms seemed to take ages to complete and with each instructor or
preceptor came the same set of questions. This process seemed very cumbersome
to me and I always wondered if the instructor (or preceptor) really cared or
read what I had written. I’ll admit that I didn’t take them very seriously or
make much effort to fill them out. Looking
back, I feel that I committed a disservice, not only to the instructors but
also myself and future students, because without providing my feedback, how
would people know how things can be improved? Feedback, regardless of whether it is
positive or negative, is something we should seek to receive as it fosters
improvement. There are many ways to solicit feedback but it’s perhaps more important
to have the right attitude when receiving feedback and, once received, using it
to foster improvement.
Soliciting Student Feedback
End of the year course evaluations are not the only method
to gather feedback. There are many approaches that instructors can employ including
focus groups and learning logs. Each approach has its own strengths and
weaknesses. Below are examples of approaches suggested by Hoban and Hastings
after a 10-year collaboration to investigate approaches to optimize the gathering
of student feedback.1
1. Student interviews / Focus Groups
In this approach, the instructor uses open-ended questions
to interview students. The interview asks students to discuss the effectiveness
of the instructor’s teaching process as well as identifying effective
strategies that reinforced the learning.
2. Student Learning Logs
Students are asked, at the end of each lesson, to write down
what they learned and how they learned (e.g. what the instructor
did to facilitate their learning). This approach can be helpful in ensuring
that students are achieving the goal of the lesson but students often have
difficulty with describing how the instructor helped facilitate the learning.
3. Surveys
This last approach is the most commonly used method. The survey
needs to be formulated in a manner that would allow the instructor to reflect
on their teaching approach. For example, useful questions might include “My instructor uses
things I already know how to help me learn new ideas” or “Across the term, my
teachers’ lessons build on one another to develop better understanding.” Additionally,
having both student and instructor complete the survey, instructors are able to
compare their perceptions with the students’ perceptions. This allows the instructor
to gain a bigger perspective when reflecting on their teaching process.
The list above is only a small representation of the many
methods that could be employed to collect feedback from students. It is up to
the instructor to decide which is most appropriate for their audience and setting.
Instructor Attitudes Towards Student Feedback
Receiving student’s feedback poses a potential
challenge because most often the process will elicit a psychological response.
Instructors should separate their emotions when receiving feedback as this will
facilitate a more reflective and cognitive consideration of the information.
This will help instructors to deal more effectively with some of the more
critical comments.2
Vanderbilt University has developed strategies
that can assist instructors with receiving feedback. When reading/receiving
feedback, some of the strategies include: 3
- Pick out a good time and place so that you have the privacy and space to analyze the information
- Identify trends in the students’ feedback; look for what is working well and what needs improvement in the teaching process
- Gain perspective on the student feedback by considering current experience with teaching
- Realize that all instructors will receive negative feedback. Negative feedback can still be used to identify areas of improvement.
Using Student Feedback
Once instructors have read and reflected on
student feedback, the next step is to use it to identify things that need to be
improved in the teaching/learning process. Stanford University’s Center for
Teaching and Learning offers a stepwise approach:4
- Reflect on the goals of the course. This step will allow instructors to place student feedback into perspective by allowing instructors see where they and the students differ on their view of the course
- Determine your personal strengths and weaknesses as an instructor. Student feedback can be used to pinpoint some areas of strength and weakness.
- Target areas of improvement This last step is where the instructor identifies the change they will make to improve the teaching process. Instructors should focus on one to two changes that can be feasibility implemented. It’s important to remember that improvements in student feedback may not be seen instantly. It can take days, months and even years before the desired outcome is achieved but that should not deter an instructor from continuing their efforts to push for the improvement.
- Hoban G, Hastings G. Developing different forms of student feedback to promote teacher reflection: A 10-year collaboration. Teaching and Teacher Education. 2006 11;22(8):1006-19.
- Using Student Feedback [Internet]. Eugene (OR). University of Oregon, Teaching Effectiveness Program. [Cited 2013 Feb 17].
- Student Evaluations [Internet]. Nashville (TN). Vanderbilt University, Centers for Teaching. [Cited 2013 Feb 17].
- Stanford University. Using Student Evaluations to Improve Teaching. Standford University Newsletter on Teaching, Fall 1997, Vol 9, No.1.
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