Promoting reflective dialogue through group analysis of student feedback

Abstract

This paper describes an activity intended to promote scholarship of teaching through small-group discussion of feedback from students. There is a paucity of literature on group reflection of student feedback which this paper aims to address. Reflection on teaching is often a lone activity but this Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) supported project afforded the opportunity for group reflection by teachers from five institutions during our first project workshop. To provide the data for group analysis, students from the participating institutions completed a survey designed by the project team. A workshop activity was devised in which groups analysed the qualitative survey responses and derived principles for learning and teaching based on their reflection. Evaluation of the activity included workshop participant evaluation forms, feedback from the ALTC project team and evaluator; and the principles developed during the activity. A notable measure of the activity’s impact is that most participants stated that as a result of the workshop, of which this activity was a significant part, they intended to change something about their own teaching.