Higher Education Teaching and Learning

This National Project Fund project examined the extent to which teaching practices are informed by learner feedback in New Zealand tertiary institutions.

 

This project investigated tertiary teachers’ views of, and engagement with, feedback gathered through student evaluations. The study drew on a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques; in all, 1,065 staff from 3 institutions (1 polytechnic and 2 universities) participated in a questionnaire and 60 volunteers were interviewed.

This study highlights the need for greater use of student evaluation as an integral part of professional development. Closing the loop is introduced as a principle to encourage individual teachers, departments and organisations to:

provide evidence to demonstrate the quality of teaching to government, to staff, to colleagues, to students and other stakeholders enable planning for ongoing personal, professional, course/programme and institutional development enable students to be involved in development activities and give them a voice in the quality aspects of their tertiary experience.

Two outputs are available from this project: a research report and a summary guide.