Exploring impacts on students as givers of teaching feedback

Feedback is usually given for the primary benefit of the feedback recipient and often involves the unidirectional delivery of information. The purpose of this paper is to reverse this emphasis and examines the impacts on students of giving feedback to staff as an ongoing dialogue in the delivery of a teaching unit.

This novel study uses surveys and focus groups for an in-depth case study of the impact of students giving feedback to staff. It examines different aspects of students’ experiences related to their sense of being supported and valued, together with issues of relevance, timeliness and the actionability of feedback.

Results show that the regular giving of feedback by students and their subsequent academic actions can help increase students’ sense of being supported and valued. The strongest correlations occurred between the responses of those who felt valued and supported and their perception that their own feedback was acted upon during the semester. There is also some evidence suggesting that students felt valued when observing that other students’ feedback was acted upon either immediately or in the future.

The single case study approach to this research means that only one cohort of students was tested. Research on further cohorts would help to validate the findings.

This study could have implications for teaching quality and practice in better directing, communicating, engaging and following up on student feedback.

Whilst the benefit to the staff of student feedback is well documented, there is little evidence documenting benefits to students. This study addresses this gap in existing research.