Benefits and Challenges of Higher Education - Essay Example

Student Feedback in Higher Education Name: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Background 3 Benefits of the strategy 4 Challenges of the strategy 5 Conclusion 7 Recommendations 7 References 8 Student Feedback in Higher Education Introduction Feedback is defined as information that is provided by tutors and lecturers on performance of students or their understanding. Students’ feedback could be records by students with regard to their study methods and learning styles. This is valuable to their teachers but does not call for opinion or evaluation by students. Student feedback can comprise of their views on whether their objectives have been met. Student feedback in higher education has challenges as well as benefits that are important in understanding the learning environment in institutions. This essay discusses student feedback in higher education outlining the benefit and challenges associated with the strategy. Background Student feedback is majorly concerned with quality enhancement and can be used for staff promotions and appraisals in institutions of higher learning. Feedback is used to communicate the standards and quality of programmes in higher learning. Connectedly, feedback on specific modules might well be applied to communicate module choice by students in an institution. Regardless of the purposes collection of the feedback by student has to include its designed uses and the nature of enhancement procedures and institutional quality assurance (Burke, 2011). Student feedback can be used for enhancement of the experience of student in learning and teaching. Feedback by students has contributed to review and monitoring of standards and quality. Feedback creates a room for dialogue with students that result in the effectiveness of course delivery and design. Consequently staff development is achieved through student feedback. Student feedback plays an important role in teaching and learning process in the higher education. Benefits of the strategy Research show that some students view feedback from a deep learning perspective. It is a learning tool and opportunity to gain a better interpretation of course material whereas some see it as a basic aid of attaining better grades. Some bright students were less interested in interpretation of material but wanted feedback; they disliked class participation but just wanted specific answers. Feedback provides an opportunity for students to engage with their lecturers and learn more about the subjects being taught (Price, Handley & Millar, 2011). A lecturer may be interested in knowing how far the students have understood what was being taught as opposed to whether they were satisfied or liked it. A program or course team might be searching to get student feedback for evidence of learning objectives being met. Students can use the opportunity to express their views whether positive or negative that will be considered in future development of the programme. Feedback is an integral part for student learning and development it assists students to evaluate how far they have attained learning outcomes and points out areas that students need to address. In some instances students usually fail to follow up tutor feedback since they do not understand how to apply it. Students need information on how they develop their work. The important reason of gathering feedback in college classes is to improve courses; usually along the lines of organization, structure, pace or other aspects that the lecturer has control. Most of the literature concerned with the effectiveness and the value of feedback has focused on the timing of feedback (Rowe, 2011). Specifically, the essence of quick turnaround times as well as the various feedbacks is provided. Emotional and personal significance of feedback has to be given more attention by university teachers and managers. Engagement with the tasks needs that students draw on prior knowledge and motivational beliefs and create a personal interpretation of the properties and requirement of the task. Based on an internal conception, they come up with their own goals by applying strategies and tactics that generate outcomes. Evaluation of these interactions with the task and the outcomes that are produced cumulatively generates internal feedback. The feedback is obtained from a comparison of current progress against internal standards and goals (Price, Handley & Millar, 2011). Gaps are often identified and action further taken to close existing gaps. The self-generated feedback information may lead to re-interpretation of the task or further adjustment of internal goals or strategies and tactics. Students may go ahead and revise their domain beliefs or knowledge which would influence subsequent processes of self-regulation. Challenges of the strategy A report in 2005 by the Australian government pointed out the fact that below one third of university students felt that teaching staff took an interest in their progress, showing a widespread urge for a more personal dimension in teaching in the university. Interpretation of Knowledge of how emotions contribute to the learning process remains very limited; despite the fact learning itself is intrinsically is a business intrinsically emotional (Rowe, 2011). Consequently there is absence of attention provided to emotion in contemporary general texts with regard to higher education. The relative abandonment of this issue may be partially attributed to absence of agreement concerning how the term ‘emotion’ is interpreted. Emotions are usually interpreted as responses to events, with the widespread perception being that they arise in reaction to specific situations, when a person offers an appraisal that eventually triggers various response tendencies like facial expression, subjective experience, physiological and cognitive processing changes. Lack of standardization and differences in opinions and objectives can be a challenge when it comes to feedback in institutions of higher learning. From long time ago learning has been quantitatively measured, fundamental through written communications, contents and objectives. There is paradigm shift from written exemptions to coursework, from assessments that are tutor-led to assessments that are student-led, from criteria that is implicit to criteria that is explicit, from product assessment to process assessment, from competition to collaboration, from content to competences, and from objectives to outcomes (Burke, 2009). With regard to trends in distance learning, there is an assumption that these trends are making scenario change when technology is applied in education. Underlying differences or areas of emphasis can have an impact on the different conception of student feedback. Some people equated feedback of student to student satisfaction but this view is not universal. Differences in perception can lead to ineffectiveness of feedback in universities and other institutions of higher learning. Conclusion Student feedback in higher education is very important in determining the objective, content and organization of the course or program. Both lecturers and students benefit from the student feedback because it is used to define the process of learning and teaching in university. Standards and objectives are set using this feedback. Staff promotion and appraisal forms an important application of student feedback in institutions of higher learning. The importance of feedback in higher education cannot be disputed. Recommendations Positive feedback is an important aspect of formative assessment. Care has to be taken to constraint feedback to the task being performed and referring to the traits of the learner should be avoided. Feedback is very helpful since it gives a chance to first year students to understand and adjust to what is expected of them. Lecturers have to involve learners in the development for their task evaluation and should be engaged in comparing responses given by their students; this has to form the foundation of the performance criteria applied their teachers in the assessment of their work (Baroudi, 2007). Peer-assessment is an important training ground for self-assessment that is effective. Questions asked in formative assessment have to be for the purpose of planning future instructions. Formative assessment is a way into more fundamental alternatives in learning and teaching. Questioning changes have engineered more thoughtful dialogues, as well as changes in feedback homework from a mere activity of grading. The changes have highlighted more clearly the goal of serving the learning process. Students, tutors and lectures have to be involved in the development of feedback systems that are effective an unbiased. Student feedback should not be used to sabotage or oust individual who have different opinion on perspectives on controversial issues in the university. Feedback has to be used to make course modules to be better and understand the learning process. References Rowe, A. (2011). The personal dimension in teaching: why students value feedback, Internal Journal of Educational Management 25 (4): 343-360. Baroudi, ZA. (2007). Formative assessment: Definition, elements and role of instructional practice, Postgraduate Journal of Education Research 8(1):37-48. Burke, D. (2009). Strategies for using feedback that students bring to their degree course: an analysis of first year perceptions at the start of a course in Humanities, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 34 (1): 41–50. Burke, D. (2011). “Now I’ve got the feedback, what do I do with it?” Strategies for students to get more out of tutor feedback, Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 6 (1): 43-60. Price, M., Handley, K. & Millar, J. (2011). Feedback: focusing attention on engagement, Studies in Higher Education 36 (8): 879-896. Read More