Teachers’ experiences of student feedback: A view from a department of social work in Sweden

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Course evaluations play a significant part in the facilitating of educational programmes at a university. Along with course evaluations, students are often asked for their reflections on teachers’ pedagogical methods and approaches. These types of questions canbe referred to as student evaluations of teaching, or SETs. Separately, there is growing, yet underdeveloped, interest in understanding the emotional impact the role of being a university lecturer has on the individual teacher. This piece of work is interested in combining the areasof teacher development, SET and emotional impact. Therefore, this research is seeking to understand how teachers in a department of social work engage with student feedback, manage this feedback and understand pedagogical self-development.METHODS: A mixed approach (an online survey and semi-structured interviews), was taken to gather the experiences of the teachers.FINDINGS: The results show that all the teachers engaged with student feedback. It also showed that some teachers experienced negative emotions regarding feedback that were unpleasant but had strategies to deal with the feedback.CONCLUSION: The results also pointed towards individual-directed solutions as the drivers behind creating good practices around pedagogical self-development, and for managing any emotional impact of SETs.

English Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Evaluation of Teaching in an Indonesian University

“…Although the teachers are confident that they can respond to student feedback, the challenges of teaching and learning in a university are dynamic, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which became a global issue in early 2020 (WHO, 2020). COVID-19 greatly disrupted higher education since universities have had to close their doors, stop face-to-face interactions, and rapidly transition teaching, learning, and assessments onto a digital platform (Lemoine & Richardson, 2020;McCormack et al, 2021;Melnyk et al, 2020). Some scholars found that teachers were working under pressure due to the workfrom-home environment, as working from home creates challenges for teachers with familial responsibilities who must manage their time between domestic roles, teaching and researching (Neuwirth et al, 2020;Watermeyer et al, 2020).…”

“…As COVID-19 affected countries worldwide, fear of the deadly virus necessitated tremendous changes in the educational sector. During this unprecedented time, educators had to transition to online instruction regardless of their willingness or preparedness (Lemoine & Richardson, 2020;McCormack et al, 2021). In this institution, during the early transition to teaching and learning online, many teachers felt anxious and stressed about delivering lessons online and creating teaching materials that support students' learning while away from campus.…”