Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experience of using student feedback for professors at higher-education accredited institutions in the United States of America. The essential question of this research was what are the factors of professors using student feedback? This research found that professors use student feedback if the feedback is found to be valid. The ten professors of this study represented a combined teaching tenure of over 200 years of experience who expressed their lived experiences through the collection of three methods: feedback reflection survey, individual interviews, and a letter writing prompt. The use of Moustakas’ data analysis procedures aided in the discovery of the essence and aided this research to discover two new perceived facets to close the gap in the literature: stages of feedback implementation and a beginning stage of a new timing theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data are available on request due to privacy or other restrictions. The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author [JDS]. The data are not publicly available due to IRB restrictions on participant privacy/consent. However, replication of the work can be attained from the Tables provided.
References
Adalberon E (2020) Providing assessment feedback to pre-service teachers: a study of examiners’ comments. Assess Eval High Educ. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1795081
Agarwal PK, Bain PM (2019) Powerful teaching: unleash the science of learning. Jossey-Bass, San Franscisco
Boud D, Soler R (2016) Sustainable assessment revisited. Assess Eval High Educ 41(3):400–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1018133
Carless D, Boud D (2018) The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. Assess Eval High Educ 43(8):1315–1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354
Cooper JT, Whitney T, Lingo AS (2018) Using immediate feedback to increase opportunities to respond in a general education classroom. Rural Spec Educ Q 37(1):52–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756870517747121
Dawson P, Henderson M, Mahoney P, Phillips M, Ryan T, Boud D, Molloy E (2019) What makes for effective feedback: staff and student perspectives. Assess Eval High Educ 44(1):25–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1467877
Denzin NK (1978) The research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods, 2nd edn. McGraw Hill, New York
Eriksson E, Boistrup LB, Thornberg R (2020) “You must learn something during a lesson”: how primary students construct meaning from teacher feedback. Educ Stud. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2020.1753177
Gan Z, Nang H, Mu K (2018) Trainee teachers’ experiences of classroom feedback practices and their motivation to learn. J Educ Teach 44(4):505–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2018.1450956
Garino A (2020) Ready, willing and able: a model to explain successful use of feedback. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract 25(2):337–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-019-09924-2
Goldhaber D, Özek U (2019) How much should we rely on student test achievement as a measure of success? Educ Res 48(7):479–483. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19874061
Gourley P, Madonia G (2021) The impact of tenure on faulty course evaluations. Educ Econ 29(1):73–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2020.1852391
Gravett K, Kinchin IM, Winstone NE, Balloo K, Heron M, Hosein A, Lygo D, Baker S, Medland E (2020) The development of academics’ feedback literacy: experiences of learning from critical feedback via scholarly peer review. Assess Eval High Educ 45(5):651–665. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1686749
Gündüz N, Fokoué E (2021) Understanding students’ evaluations of professors using non-negative matrix factorization. J Appl Stat 48(13–15):2961–2981. https://doi.org/10.1080/02664763.2021.1991288
Hall C, Peleva E, Vithlani RH, Shah S, Bashyam M, Ramadas M, Horsburgh J, Sam AH (2019) FEEDBK: a novel approach for providing feedback. Clin Teach 17(1):76–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13026
Hammer R, Peer E, Babad E (2018) Faculty attitudes about student evaluations and their relations to self-image as a teacher. Soc Psychol Educ 21:517–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9426-1
Hattie J, Clarke S (2019) Visible learning: feedback. Routledge, Oxfordshire
Hattie J, Timperley H (2007) The power of feedback. Rev Educ Res 77(1):81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
Henderson M, Phillips M, Ryan T, Boud D, Dawson P, Molloy E, Mahoney P (2019a) Conditions that enable effective feedback. High Educ Res Dev 38(7):1401–1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1657807
Henderson M, Ryan T, Phillips M (2019b) The challenges of feedback in higher education. Assess Eval High Educ 44(8):1237–1252. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1599815
Henderson M, Ryan T, Boud D, Dawson P, Phillips M, Molloy E, Mahoney P (2019c) The usefulness of feedback. Active Learn High Educ. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787419872393
Huang P-S, Liu C-H, Chen H-C, Sommers S (2018) Attentional bias of students toward negative feedback in bad outcome situations: the mechanism of self-defense. Soc Psychol of Educ: an Int J 21(3):565–583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9429-y
Kluger AN, DeNisi A (1996) The effects of feedback interventions on performance: a historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychol Bull 119(2):254–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.254
Kormos E, Julio L (2020) Student attitudes toward instructor assessment in higher education: does the delivery method matter? Educ Inf Technol 25:4287–4296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10152-0
Lee SH, Deale CS (2019) Rapport, rigor, and rate my professor students’ perceptions of hospitality and tourism professors. J Teach Travel Tour 19(2):93–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2018.1509763
Lim L-A, Gentili S, Pardo A, Kovanovic V, Whitelock-Wainwright A, Gasevic D, Dawson S (2021) What changes, and for whom? A study of the impact of learning analytics-based process feedback in a large course. Learn Instr 72:101202–101213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.04.003
Lincoln YS, Guba EG (1985) Naturalistic inquiry. Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks
Moustakas C (1994) Phenomenological research methods. Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks
Nadeem MA, Nadeem T (2013) Exploring impact of teacher’s feedback on learner’s learning behavior at university level. J Educ Res 16(2):54–62
Pastore S, Manuti A, Scardigno F, Curci A, Pentassuglia M (2019) Students’ feedback in mid-term surveys: an explorative contribution in the Italian university context. Qual High Educ 25(1):21–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2019.1594620
Patton MQ (2015) Qualitative research & evaluation methods, 4th edn. Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks
Quesel C, Schweinberger K, Möser G (2020) Responses to positive and negative feedback on organizational aspects of school quality: Teachers’ and leaders’ views on a Swiss traffic light approach to school inspection. Sch Eff Sch Improv. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2020.1856886
Quintelier A, Vanhoof J, De Maeyer S (2018) Understanding the influence of teachers’ cognitive and affective responses upon school inspection feedback acceptance. Educ Asse Eval Acc 30(4):399–431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-018-9286-4
Quintelier A, Maeyer SD, Vanhoof J (2020a) Determinants of teachers’ feedback acceptance during a school inspection visit. Sch Eff Sch Improv 31(4):529–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2020.1750432
Quintelier A, Maeyer SD, Vanhoof J (2020b) The role of feedback acceptance and gaining awareness on teachers’ willingness to use inspection feedback. Educ Asse Eval Acc 32:311–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-020-09325-9
Raaijmakers SF, Baars M, Schaap L, Paas F, van Gog T (2017) Effects of performance feedback valence on perceptions of invested mental effort. Learn Instr 51:36–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.12.002
Rovagnati V, Pitt E, Winstone N (2021) Feedback cultures, histories and literacies: international postgraduate students’ experiences. Assess Eval High Educ. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1916431
Saldana J (2021) The coding manual for qualitative researchers, 4th edn. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks
Stein SJ, Goodchild A, Moskal A, Terry S, McDonald J (2021) Student perceptions of student evaluations: enabling student voice and meaningful engagement. Assess Eval High Educ 46(6):837–851. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1824266
Winstone NE, Boud D (2022) The need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education. Stud High Educ 47(3):656–667. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1779687
Zierer K, Wisniewski B (2019) Using student feedback for successful teaching. Routledge, New York
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Dr. Andrea Bruce, who helped mentor the author through the completion process.
Funding
The author did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The researcher (Dr. James Sigler) was the only author of the work.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares no competing interests.
Ethical approval
IRB approved this study at Liberty University, IRB # IRB-FY21-22-775.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all participants for participation in the study.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Sigler, J.D. Receiving student feedback: professor shared experiences. SN Soc Sci 3, 133 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00726-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-023-00726-3