Leveraging Student Feedback on Teaching
Collecting student feedback on your teaching is one way to assess the impacts of your teaching and use data to inform improvements to your teaching.
Student feedback can be collected in a variety of formats:
- Expressing your interest in the CTLI’s Mid-Semester GIFT program, which is an evidence-based practice, conducted mid-semester, that provides instructors with timely formative and actionable feedback to improve the quality of a course.
- Before, during, and after individual class periods.
- Via an early-semester survey.
- In a mid-semester questionnaire.
- After the course has finished in student course evaluations.
- As part of your formative assessments, which are lower stakes learning activities or assignments that contribute minimally to students’ grades and provide both students and instructors with feedback on students’ progress with the course material.
Why Collect Student Feedback During the Course?
Collecting student feedback throughout your course comes with several benefits to teaching (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Brookfield, 2017).
- Make changes in real time. You can proactively address any instructional and/or classroom management/logistical issues.
- Build trust and rapport with your students. By soliciting and thoughtfully responding to students’ feedback, students can see that you care about, and are invested in, their learning.
- Develop students’ metacognitive thinking skills (Schraw & Moshman, 1995). When collecting feedback during class, you not only assess the impact of your teaching strategies, but students can also become more aware of their own learning processes – their strengths and areas for improvement, study skills that could be strengthened, and what they could do differently to improve their learning experience in your course.
- Foster a sense of community among your students. Students, especially in larger classes, can feel less anonymous if they feel that their voices are being heard by their instructor.
- Help students see the rationale behind your teaching strategies and activities. When reporting out student feedback on your class activities, students can see the value of various class activities to different students. What may not work for one student may be working very well for others. This helps to reduce student resistance to your use of teaching strategies in a class that don’t always align with student learning preferences.
How to Set Up Your Classroom Environment
Here are some things you can try to set up your course and classroom environment to be conducive to student feedback (Ambrose et al., 2010, Svincki, 2001):
- Respond to students’ feedback. It is important to close the loop on the feedback cycle. You can increase students’ motivation to give you feedback by affirming their belief that their feedback will make a difference in your teaching and their learning experience.
- Reframe office hours as drop-in hours. Shape an open-door policy in which students can approach you with constructive feedback.
- Set expectations up front about how feedback will be part of your course. Discuss the importance of giving and receiving feedback in the learning process and how feedback can facilitate their learning (e.g., as a writer, professional, scientist, artist, etc.).
- Model what effective feedback looks like and give students opportunities to practice giving feedback (e.g., group work, peer review of work). Try to give them feedback as soon as possible after the learning activity is complete.
- Provide students with choices for formats for activities and assignments. This can give students agency, or a voice in their learning, in your course. It can also give you data on students’ learning preferences to help you decide on the format for the assignments in the next offering of the course. In addition, this strategy supports universal design for learning (increasing the flexibility and accessibility of your course to reach diverse learners) and promotes student engagement.
- Use classroom assessment techniques (CATS). Try techniques to collect real-time feedback on student understanding to make adjustments to your teaching methods (Angelo & Cross, 1993). Examples of CATS are shared on the CTLI’s website.
How to Analyze and Respond to Student Feedback
Analyze the feedback. Group feedback into categories that make sense for you (e.g., positive vs. negative comments or responses, common themes). When reflecting on the feedback, consider the feedback holistically and focus on consistent trends.
Follow up with your students. Talk to your students about your feedback, whether in a verbal summary or tabulating responses (Microsoft Forms can visualize quantitative responses for you, and you can use word cloud generators to visualize open-ended responses). Let students know aspects of the course you will and won’t change, and your rationale.
Implement the changes. To close the loop on the reflective teaching cycle, implement some of the changes suggested by students. Depending on the feedback you receive, you can implement them now, during the course, or in your next offering of the course. Be transparent with your students about your plan for implementing (or not implementing) changes and briefly explain why or why not.
Considerations for Your Course Context
When making your plan to incorporate the collection of student feedback in your course, consider the following questions:
- What kind of feedback are you looking for? Your goals for feedback determine the type of classroom assessment technique you use. For example, you could use polling or a brief writing activity to gather feedback on a specific instructional strategy that you are trying for the first time. You can also use a more structured midterm feedback technique, such as the CTLI’s Mid-Semester GIFT, to receive comprehensive feedback on your whole course and methods of instruction.
- How much time, resources, and support do you have? It is not necessary to implement all the student feedback strategies, and in every class session. What is feasible given your time and resources? How might TAs or learning assistants be able to assist you?
- Are you teaching a large-enrollment course? Consider the frequency with which you want to administer the feedback strategies and analyze the data. For example, you could sample a portion of your class and rotate the week in which students complete the assessments.
- In what modality are you teaching? For in-person, on campus classes, pen/paper is relatively easy to administer, typically resulting in a high student response rate. However, educational technology tools and apps can give you a plethora of options to gather feedback from your students. Consider trying different methods and see which ones work best for you and your students. Make sure you set aside time for students to give you feedback; asking them to do this outside of class likely will not result in a high response rate unless you incentivize completion with participation points.
Learn More About Feedback and Assessment
Members of the faculty are encouraged to learn more by reviewing techniques shared in the Feedback & Assessment domain of the Teaching Effectiveness Framework. VTSU educators are also welcome to schedule a consultation with a CTLI staff member to discuss specific strategies and potential participation in our Mid-Semester Group Instructional Feedback Technique (GIFT) Program.
References
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
Angelo, T., and Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed). Jossey Bass.
Schraw G., & Moshman D. (1995). Metacognitive theories. Educational Psychology Review, 7(4), 351-371.
Svinicki, M. D. (2001). Encouraging your students to give feedback. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 2001(87), 17. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.24
Citation: Tse, Crystal (2022). “Peer Feedback on Your Teaching.” Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois Chicago. Retrieved April 20, 2026 from https://teaching.uic.edu/resources/teaching-guides/reflective-teaching-guides/peer-feedback-on-your-teaching/
