Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through Student Feedback in Social Sciences

223 Pages·2013·5.903 MB·English

by  Chenicheri Sid Nair and Patricie Mertova (Eds.)

Enhancing Learning and Teaching through
Student Feedback in Social Sciences
CHANDOS
LEARNING AND TEACHING SERIES
Series Editors: Professor Chenicheri Sid Nair and Dr Patricie Mertova
(emails: [email protected] and [email protected])
This series of books is aimed at practitioners in the higher education quality arena.
This includes academics, managers and leaders involved in higher education quality, as well
as those involved in the design and administration of questionnaires, surveys and courses.
Designed as a resource to complement the understanding of issues relating to student
feedback, books in this series will respond to these issues with practical applications.
If you would like a full listing of current and forthcoming titles, please visit our
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Enhancing Learning and
Teaching through Student
Feedback in Social
Sciences
E
DITED BY
C S N
HENICHERI ID AIR
AND
P M
ATRICIE ERTOVA
Oxford Cambridge New Delhi
Chandos Publishing
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First published in 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84334-655-5 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-78063-352-7 (online)
© The editors and contributors, 2013
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List of figures and tables
Figures
5.1 Integrated T&L framework and related
feedback mechanisms 90
5.2 Longitudinal data collection process 93
5.3 SEQ: reported student experience 95
6.1 Mid-programme experience survey relative to
programme evaluation survey 126
Tables
2.1 Results on BA and NI in the arts,
education and social science disciplines 35–7
5.1 Characteristics of quality assurance and
quality enhancement 86
5.2a Internal distinctions in programmes’ activity 99–100
5.2b Internal distinctions in programmes’ activity 101
5.3 Challenges facing institutional feedback process 104
6.1 Domain: academic and professional growth 128
6.2 Factor structure of the domain of learning
experience 129–30
6.3 Perception of pupil learning 131
6.4 Teachers: lead, care and inspire 132
6.5 Teaching beliefs 132
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Preface
Evaluation in higher education is aimed at verifying whether
an action or a process, particularly in the area of learning
and teaching but also in other aspects of university life, has
achieved the aims and outcomes that were originally envisaged.
This book is the second in a series on student feedback in
disciplines and how it has or can be used to enhance the
quality of learning and teaching in higher education. It
follows on from a book entitled Enhancing Learning and
Teaching through Student Feedback in Engineering.
Specifically focusing on student feedback in social sciences,
this volume provides insight into the process of evaluation
and the design of evaluation within social science disciplines,
such as education, sociology, psychology, economics, that
are currently utilised in a number of countries around the
world.1 Most importantly, the book aims to show the reader
that student feedback has a place within the social sciences
and, more generally, in higher education.
This volume introduces student feedback in social science
disciplines and draws upon international perspectives within
the setting of higher education. The majority of the
contributors are practitioners within social science disciplines
and some specialise more generally in student feedback. All
the chapters give the contributors’ perspectives on the
subject, providing insights into practices within the
contributors’ institutions and the approaches utilised in their
higher education systems.
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Enhancing Learning and Teaching
The book consists of nine chapters. The first eight chapters
delve into the practices, views and approaches to student
feedback in higher education systems around the world,
with contributions from Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa,
Singapore, Austria, the United Kingdom and Australia. The
final chapter draws upon the information presented in the
previous chapters, outlining current trends and issues, and
looking at the future of student feedback in social sciences.
A common theme runs through the majority of chapters –
the value of utilising student feedback as part of the quality
enhancement approaches within the discipline. The main
argument in this book is that such feedback is essential in
improving the key learning outcomes within social sciences,
such as enabling skills to understand, communicate and
solve problems. It is also evident that, although the use of
student feedback is in its infancy in many parts of the world,
there is a realisation that such feedback is critical in
enhancing the quality of social science programmes.
Chenicheri Sid Nair and Patricie Mertova
Note
1. It should be pointed out that understandings of social science disciplines
may vary slightly from institution to institution and the perceptions of
where disciplines perceive themselves as belonging may vary slightly.
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About the authors
Dr Iqbal Akthar is programme leader on the BA (Hons)
Mass Communications course at Liverpool John Moores
University in the UK. An experienced educator, he has taught
and worked with international students for the past ten
years. He currently works closely with a number of overseas
institutions to deliver distance learning courses and is
especially concerned with enhancing the student experience.
His main interests lie in the application of new technologies
to learning and teaching, particularly in the field of distance
learning. His current research is on students’ performance
and support.
Dina Zoe Belluigi is currently a lecturer at the Centre for
Higher Education Research, Learning and Teaching
(CHERTL) at Rhodes University, South Africa. Her research
in the field of higher education studies is concerned with
understanding issues of student agency, intentionality and
ethical relations between teacher and student. Her primary
current research project explores such problematics as
authorship in educational dynamics; ethical approaches to
assessment and judgment; how the roles of lecturer and
student are constructed; the conditions for creativity; and the
possibilities of moving the student experience from alienation
to engagement. Dina is also a practising artist, with a teaching
background in fine art studio practice. Much of her research
looks at learning and teaching in the creative arts disciplines.
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Enhancing Learning and Teaching
Peter Burden is a professor at the Okayama Shoka University
in Japan where he has taught for over 20 years. He received
his EdD in TESOL from the University of Exeter in the UK
and has published widely on both teachers’ and learners’
perceptions of the use of teaching evaluations. His current
research interests focus on learner perceptions and teacher/
learner dissonance as well as the use of metaphor to inform
teaching practice.
Dr Goh Kim Chuan is a professor and Head of the Office of
Academic Quality Management, National Institute of
Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. He has wide experience in higher education,
having worked at three universities in Southeast Asia for 37
years. He has spent the last 20 years at the NIE, where he
has been Head of Department, Associate Dean of Programmes
and subsequently of Student Development, and for the last
three years, Head of Academic Quality Management. His
involvement in student development and institutional policies
relating to quality management covers chairing various
committees, task forces and working groups, including
programme reviews, promotion and tenure, institutional
climate, and international conferences.
Dr Angela Evangelinou-Yiannakis is an honorary research
fellow of the Graduate School of Education, The University
of Western Australia (UWA). For over 30 years, she has been
a teacher and leader in secondary education and has also
worked in higher education, most recently in the area of
teaching English and literacy to pre-service teachers. Her
research expertise is in the teaching of Greek as a second
language in Australia under the ‘seconded teacher scheme’
from Greece. She has held numerous leadership positions in
this area and has represented UWA as a specialist in the
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About the authors
field. She held the position of Chair of the Modern Greek
Syllabus Committee for 19 years and was the Director of
Greek Studies, Vice Principal and Acting Principal of Perth’s
sole Greek Orthodox day school for 17 years. More recently,
Dr Evangelinou-Yiannakis has undertaken research into the
provision of formative feedback to students in higher
education. As a member of the Executive Committee of the
Western Australian Institute for Educational Research
(WAIER), Dr Evangelinou-Yiannakis has helped to coordinate
and promote locally-conducted research through WAIER’s
research seminars. She has presented papers both nationally
and internationally, and published a number of articles.
Dr Koh Noi Keng is a senior lecturer at the National Institute
of Education (NIE), Singapore, an institute of the Nanyang
Technological University. She has been a teacher, discipline
head, Head of Department and Deputy Principal. Advocating
diversity in learning and teaching at the teacher training
institute, Dr Koh spearheads financial and business education
in Singapore schools. She was the branch Training Manager
and Senior Curriculum Specialist for Economics and Commerce
education in the Humanities Branch at the headquarters of the
Ministry of Education, Singapore, and is currently business
education programme coordinator at the Humanities and
Social Studies Education Academic group in NIE.
Dr Patricie Mertova is currently a research fellow in the
Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK. She
was previously a research officer at the University of
Queensland, Australia 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 and has research expertise in the areas of
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