Workshop: Student evaluations - what they can tell you and what they can’t

Student evaluations of teaching play an important role in the process of evaluating and improving instruction. Collecting reliable and valid data about teaching has become a common practice within Higher Education to make well-informed decisions about course (re)design and teachers’ careers. Over the past few years, growing concerns have been expressed about whether student evaluations of teaching can be used as diagnostic tools or whether they are increasingly misused for administrative purposes. It goes without saying that both students and teachers should benefit from valid feedback sources to maintain and improve education. This requires a critical examination of the why, what, and how we collect such feedback.

The present workshop will address the issue of how to improve our feedback practices at UM, such that they help students and teachers monitor and improve education. After a brief introduction, participants will have ample opportunities to develop ideas for improvement and assess them against criteria for proven feedback practices.

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to/have:

• Acquired an understanding of creating the necessary conditions for student feedback to be effective for teachers.
• Got introduced to the underlying assumptions of using students as raters and evaluators of teaching and learning.
• Engaged in a critical appraisal of what works when using student evaluations for improving education.

This activity may count towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) if relevant to your situation.

About the trainer
Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers holds the chair of Educational Research at the Department for Educational Research and Development, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. His research interests include Leadership Development, Organisational Learning, Team Learning, and Expertise Development. Previous research projects include understanding the impact of learning culture on professional performance and team decision-making, leadership behaviour and team learning, and cognitive approaches to leadership development. His educational development work focuses on the further development of Problem-Based Learning in business education.