Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through Student Feedback in Social Sciences

Professor Sid Nair is currently Executive Dean and Dean Learning, Teaching and Student Experience at the Victorian Institute of Technology (VIT), Australia where he is responsible for the learning, teaching, student experience and quality matters of the Institution.Previous to this appointment at VIT, Sid was the Executive Director of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Mauritius, the apex regulatory body where he was responsible for the formulation and execution of strategies, policies and procedures in the higher education sector in Mauritius.Prior to joining TEC, he was Professor of Higher Education Development at the Centre for Education Futures (CEF), University of Western Australia. His role was to build the capacity of academics in the digital delivery of their teaching. His career path also had him as Interim Director and Quality Advisor (Evaluations and Research) at the Centre for Higher Education Quality (CHEQ) at Monash University, Australia where he headed the evaluation unit at Monash University. In this capacity he restructured the evaluation framework at the university. The approach to evaluations at Monash has been noted in the first round of the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audits and is part of the good practice database. His research work lies in the areas of quality in the higher education system, classroom and school environments, and the implementation of improvements from stakeholder feedback. He has extensive lecturing experience in the applied sciences in Canada, Singapore and Australia. He is an international consultant in quality and evaluations in higher education. Dr Patricie Mertova is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, England. She was previously a Research Officer at the University of Queensland, and, prior to that, a Research Fellow in the Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) and the Centre for Higher Education Quality (CHEQ), Monash University, Australia. She has recently completed her PhD focusing on the academic voice in higher education quality. She has research expertise in the areas of higher education and higher education quality. Her background is also in the areas of linguistics, translation, cross-cultural communication and foreign languages.

"Offering examples from around the world, in face-to-face as well as online learning, they demonstrate that student feedback is essential in improving learning outcomes in the social sciences, especially in areas such as communication and problem solving. They give practical guidelines on the design of evaluation within social science disciplines such as education, sociology, psychology, and economics." --ProtoView.com, February 2014"This book was an interesting read and gave me a solid overview of both the theoretical background of the subject (and its purpose) as well as examples of international best practice. This would make a useful book for anyone working directly in student feedback settings and would enable them to appreciate both the “why” of feedback as well as giving clear suggestions on improving the “how”." --Managing Information

• List of figures and tablesPrefaceAbout the authorsChapter 1: Playing broken telephone with student feedback: the possibilities and issues of transformation within a South African case of a collegial rationality model of evaluationAbstract:Contextual backgroundInstitutional contextAcademic perceptions and the use of student feedbackImproving qualityEnabling student ‘voice’Increasing student ownershipEducational value for studentsConclusion: critical concerns arising from this contextChapter 2: Listening to students’ voices to enhance their experience of universityAbstract:IntroductionMethodFindingsDiscussionConclusionChapter 3: Feedback cycles or evaluation systems? A critical analysis of the current trends in student feedback in Austrian social sciencesAbstract:IntroductionThe ‘peculiar sector’: an overview of the Austrian higher education systemFrom ‘teaching censorship’ to ‘quality assurance’: a brief historical tour of Austrian feedback mechanisms in higher educationEmerging trendsRelevance of student feedback in Austrian social sciencesChapter 4: Synchronous feedback: receiving feedback from international studentsAbstract:IntroductionInteractive communicationDelivering feedbackProblems with synchronous online feedbackConclusionChapter 5: Using programme-level student feedback: The Chinese University of Hong KongAbstractIntroductionTo what end: quality educationInstitutional contextFeedback mechanisms and processesStudent feedback (how, when and to whom)Comparative practices in selected programmesResponse to student feedbackKey features and future actionsReflections on practiceChapter 6: Usefulness of student feedback: the Singapore experienceAbstract:IntroductionTypes and importance of student feedbackEmotional aspects of learning, personal growth and identityStudent support and contextBackground to NIE studyMethodology of NIE studyFindings of NIE studyDiscussion and implications of NIE studyConclusionAcknowledgementChapter 7: Teacher perceptions of the introduction of student evaluation of teaching in Japanese tertiary educationAbstract:IntroductionThe introduction of student evaluation of teaching (SET) in Japanese tertiary educationThe present studyDiscussion of findingsImplications: how can evaluation be improved?Chapter 8: Improvements to formative feedback: views of staff and studentsAbstract:IntroductionBackground to the studyDefinitions of feedbackStaff views on formative feedback provided to studentsStudent views on formative feedback provided to themSuggestions for improvement in the provision of formative feedbackConclusionChapter 9: Emerging trends and approaches in the student voice in the social sciencesAbstract:IntroductionKey trends, issues and approachesConcluding remarksIndex