The Use of Student Feedback in Higher Education - Essay Example

? The use feedback in higher education The use feedback in higher education Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Abstract 2 2.0 Introduction 2 3.0 Background  3 4.0 Nature of Feedback 3 5.0 The Feedback Process 3 6.0 Advantages of feedback 4 7.0 Challenges facing the feedback process 5 8.0 Research findings 5 9.0 Conclusion 6 10. Recommendation  6 11. References 7 1.0 Abstract With the increase in demand for quality education, educators have implemented different methods of teaching in order to provide their students with the best training and education. In the recent past, student feedback has gained popularity as an effective teaching tool for students. More people are embracing the use of feedback in the teaching process, especially due to its benefits over other methods of teaching. Increasingly, more schools are adopting the use of feedback as a method of teaching their students. With this regard, this paper seeks to establish the reasons behind the success and growth of the use of feedback among teachers in schools. Additionally, it will focus on the advantages and challenges facing feedback as a teaching method. As feedback gives an opportunity to the teacher to understand the emotions of the students, this method has increasingly gained proves to be the most effective teaching tool. From the research, the paper recommends that whenever teachers decide to use feedback as a tool of evaluation, not only should the timing be appropriate but also have independent evaluation committees. This is the only way that the method could achieve best results. 2.0 Introduction Feedback is one of the commonly used methods of teaching for students currently. Over time, there has been an increase in the number of teaching methods that teachers and educators use for effective teaching of their students. With the increase in the demand for high quality education, learning institutions have developed different ways and means of improving the quality of information provided to the students. The changes witnessed in the global economy warrant for highly trained and qualified professionals to propel the world economy. Subsequently, student feedback, which is a new concept, is increasingly gaining attention across learning institutions. While discussing the use of feedback in higher education, this essay through secondary research will outline some of the benefits and challenges facing this method of teaching, and later present findings of the research, finally drawing conclusions and recommendations from this study. 3.0 Background  There is an increased emphasis on the contribution of student feedback to the quality of education among students. Different researchers have sought to conduct different students on the impact of feedback on the quality of education. According to Rowe (2010), the current research considerably focuses on the effectiveness of feedback among the students. Additionally, it focuses on the timing of the feedback as well as the modes that offer feedback. Other researchers have sought to demystify the effectiveness of feedback by conducting an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of feedback to the students. With these researches, different educators have adopted the use of student feedback as a teaching method. This research seeks to establish the effects that feedback has on the students through an analysis of its advantages and disadvantages (Swain, 2008). 4.0 Nature of Feedback Feedback, defined as giving specified information about a person’s current behavior aims at helping him or her continue with the behavior or modifying the behavior. It involves the sharing of information about the student’s performance, giving them an opportunity to express their sentiments on the learning process. As such, this is the most important tool used in the teaching process (Richardson, 2005). Positive feedback indicates that teachers should sustain the behavior, due to its effectiveness or appropriateness. On the other hand, negative or corrective feedback serves as a guideline for changing inappropriate or ineffective behavior. 5.0 The Feedback Process For feedback to be effective, there are a number of steps that evaluators need to use. The first step in the feedback process is the clarification of the context and focus of the feedback among the students. This sets the focus of the feedback process between the teacher and students (Kean & Labhrainn, 2005). Devising a feedback strategy is the second step of the feedback process. This strategy provides guidelines for the feedback process such as the goals of the feedback process. Gathering the actual feedback data is the third step of the process. This involves the use of questionnaires focusing on different parameters the research focuses on. Next, the teachers analyze and interpret the feedback, determining the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning process. Agreeing on the course of action with reference to the analyzed and interpreted data follows. Finally, implementing the changes and recommendations of the findings is the final step of the entire process (Spiller, 2009). 6.0 Advantages of feedback According to Rowe (2010), feedback acts as a guide towards good results. Feedback allows students understand the reasoning behind grades, giving them guidelines on the ways and means of improving their performance. It also helps in evaluating the progress of the learning process thus far. It gives an indication on the level of work expected for an individual to do well, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Feedback focusing on the course content among the students helps in improving the quality of the student’s learning process. Feedback also helps in improving the understanding between lecturers and the students in the learning process. Additionally, feedback allows students to participate in the learning process, thus making learning process interactive and interesting. Feedback also encourages teachers and lecturers to provide quality teaching and dedicate their efforts towards the success of their students. Feedback helps in reducing anxiety among the teachers and the students especially whenever there is poor communication between them (Spiller, 2009). Through the feedback process, teachers show their increased level of care for their students in their learning process. 7.0 Challenges facing the feedback process Although feedback is an important tool for evaluating the learning process, it is in effective if it suffers from different challenges. For instance, if the feedback involves less than ten students, then the evaluation process could lead to poor or biased results. Since feedback relies on the information provided regarding student’s views, a low number of people lead to poor results (Keane & Labhrainn, 2005). Additionally, it suffers from bias in case there are no set rules or regulations on the evaluation process. Timing is also important. If the timing is poor, then there is likely to be poor results from the research process. 8.0 Research findings Feedback process is one of the most effective teaching methods among students in the current learning process. Although it suffers from a number of drawbacks, the advantages accrued by teachers and students by using feedback as a tool for evaluation makes it the most effective teaching tool. Different factors contribute to the increase in the use of feedback as a teaching method among the students. In fact, through advocacy, different education experts in the teaching profession favor the use of feedback as a learning tool. The fact that feedback gives the teachers direction on the progress of the students in the learning process is one of the contributing factors to this use. The ability of teachers to learn the emotions of students in the learning process using feedback also contributes to the increase in its use. Since students exhibit different emotions in the learning process, it is difficult for teachers to identify these emotions as a group. However, if teachers were to use feedback in their learning process helps in identifying these emotions among the students. With the understanding of the impact of emotions to the success of an individual in their field of operation whether in school or at work, emotions have become center of concern for different researchers. Feedback also helps in identifying areas that students understand and those that require specific attention. Feedback allows students to express their thoughts and perceptions on the understanding of the various concepts discussed in class. As such, this helps teachers change their teaching tactics whenever approaching any contentious topic in their teaching process. 9.0 Conclusion There are different teaching methods available for teachers to use in order to provide quality education to their students. However, the effective of these methods significantly depends on their ability to provide students with high quality education. The increase in demand for high quality education for students has prompted different schools to develop different methods of improving the quality of education among their students. Research has indicated that feedback currently is the most effective teaching tool that teachers can use in providing education to their students. 10. Recommendation  From the findings of this research, it is evident that feedback is an effective tool for teaching their students. However, there should be proper timing of the feedback collection as poor timing leads to poor results. As such, the evaluation process should take place at the end of the learning period. Further, there should be independent committees tasked with the evaluation. If the person under evaluation has access to the committee, this could lead to the manipulation of the results. 11. References Keane, E. & Labhrainn, I. M. (2005). Obtaining Student Feedback on Teaching & Course Quality, Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.nuigalway.ie/celt/documents/evaluation_ofteaching.pdf Richardson, J. T. E. (2005). Instruments for obtaining student feedback: a review of the literature, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 30 (4), August, pp. 387–415. Retrieved from http://www.suu.edu/faculty/robertsw/Evaluation%20Task%20Force/Instruments%20for%20obtaining%20student%20feedback.pdf Rowe, A. (2010).The personal dimension in teaching: why students value feedback, International Journal of Educational Management. 25 (4). pp. 343-360. Spiller, D. (2009). Assessment: Feedback to promote student learning, The University of Waikato, Retrieved from pp. 2-18. http://www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/pdf/booklets/6_AssessmentFeedback.pdf Swain, H. (2008). Student feedback, The Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/student-feedback/400637.article Read More