Quality in the Classroom

Increasingly, Victoria University staff is being asked to demonstrate the quality of learning and teaching that occurs in the classroom- whether it be a lecture theatre, a tutorial, a classroom, laboratory or workplace.

The most powerful and practical way to achieve quality at this level is to undertake systematic feedback from students. Such feedback provides information to the teachers about on what, how much, and how well students are learning. This in turn leads to modification of teaching strategies so that student learning is enhanced. Many teachers want to know what quality means to them. 'What can I do about quality? What does it mean to me?' This site provides resources for teaching staff who wish to explore how they can improve the quality of teaching and learning within the resources of the classroom. Specifically, it provides information about how to develop systematic approaches to getting feedback from students.

You can collect systematic student feedback in two broad ways:

1. by collecting feedback from students towards the end of a subject/module or course, or
2. by collecting feedback from students as part of the teaching process, during classes.

Why collect student feedback for formative purposes?

The systematic collection of student feedback about how much and how well students are learning, builds on existing efforts that most teachers use to determine whether students are learning, and strengthens summative assessment s that are routinely used by teachers (such as exams, tests, and papers).Teachers regularly use a range of strategies such as questioning techniques, language cues and monitoring body language to determine how well students understand what is happening in the classroom.

Systematic collection of student feedback is useful because:

It provides evidence that the teacher is interested in continuous improvement in the classroom,

The teacher does not have to rely on memory - information collected systematically is better documented,

Students are explicitly involved in the process,

Students can see changes (if any) that are put in place as a result of their feedback.