An Action Learning Approach to Changing Teaching Practice Using Group Reflection on Student and Graduate Feedback

Abstract

We present a model for a collaborative activity intended to promote scholarship of teaching through small-group discussion of feedback from students. Reflection on teaching is often a lone activity and this is reflected in the paucity of literature on group reflection, however literature suggests that lone reflection on teaching can fail to conform entrenched attitudes. This paper describes the process by which we collected data on students, and former students learning experiences; prepared the qualitative data for discussion by cross-institutional groups; structured the discussion activities to maintain focus on cultural change; and evaluated the activities’ impact. The activity was carried out as part of our ALTC-supported project’s first academic forum and repeated during the second forum, with refinements to the procedure based on evaluation of the first activity. Data collected for evaluation of the first and second iterations of the activity suggests that it is an effective strategy for the promotion of scholarship of teaching and the associated development and implementation of changes to teaching practice.