Midterm feedback: Watch what you ask for...it might help you

By Gayle Golden

At the midterm, we test students on course material.

Why not ask them questions about us?

The middle of the semester, or even earlier, is a great time to get feedback about whether your course is working the way you think it is. So when students come back from spring break, you can greet them with a few simple questions: Has the course met their expectations? Would they like anything changed? Does your teaching style work for them? What do they hope to learn from the second part of the semester?

Feedback is a useful thing, and too often instructors labor under the illusion it's reserved for the end of the semester -- too late to do any good for the students you're teaching now.

"Any feedback is good, of course, and getting some early can head off issues later," said Chris Ison, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies.

No one is above such measures. Ison recalls chatting with an esteemed but new instructor a while ago who was concerned his class wasn't going well. When the instructor did a midterm survey, the feedback told him the class needed some changes. "I knew he was a good teacher," Ison said, "but he adjusted -- just a bit -- and felt the class got much better. He knew his students appreciated that he cared enough to ask their opinions. And his end-of-semester evaluations reflected it."

So many ways to ask
But how to go about it? To quote John Cage, BEGIN ANYWHERE.

At least that's the word from Christina Petersen, an education program specialist with the university's Center for Educational Innovation, who also said soliciting student input should be an ongoing part of all courses, from the early weeks through the midterm -- a practice known as early term feedback.

"If I had one teaching practice to recommend, it would be early term feedback," she said. The process can be as involved or as light as you wish.

Christina Petersen

For instructors who want to make sure they get an honest and full response from a reluctant class (or maybe one where many students are overshadowed by a few vocal ones) the center offers a 15-question survey in which students can rate their learning effort and the course attributes. The survey also lets the students reflect on what the instructor as well as the student can do to improve learning in the class.

But Petersen said many instructors develop their own smaller surveys with just a few questions. Such  questions might include: Is the pace of the class too fast, slow or OK for you? Is the amount of weekly material manageable (and be sure to also ask how many hours a week they are working on the class)? How am I helping your learning? What could I change to help your learning?

If you want an even more micro approach, Petersen suggests handing out index cards at the end of a class with three questions: What about the class is helping your learning? What about the class is hindering your learning? What changes would you like to see? You can also use those index cards to list three terms: Start. Stop. Continue. Then simply ask students for an open-ended response to what they'd like started, stopped and continued in the course.

"It's the act of asking that's the important thing," she said. In fact, studies suggest that just by asking for feedback, students develop a more positive attitude about the instructor, which shows up in better end-of-term evaluations.

Yet...it's how you ask
The trick, of course, is to help students feel safe enough so they offer meaningful feedback. That means letting students know you want their feedback to improve the course. And letting them know their comments will NOT be used against them.

Assuring anonymity will help with that process. If you sense distrust in the classroom, Petersen says it's always an option to do as she does and arrange for a student worker to type up the responses so students know theirs will be anonymous. (Note: If you are worried about this, please come talk to me. We can make arrangements.)

At issue, of course, are fears instructors have about what "flaws" the feedback will reveal. Those fears are, for the most part, understandable and normal. "Most instructors are afraid -- afraid of what they'll find," Petersen said.  "I remember the first time I did it my hands were shaking."

But in most cases, she said, the feedback students give is often surprisingly benign and easy to correct. In one active-learning classroom, she was surprised by one early-term feedback form complaint that students didn't like turning their necks all the time as she walked around the room. They asked her to stand still at the board. She said OK.

So what someone might think is a wonderfully dynamic teaching style may actually be a distraction.

Who knew? (The students, obviously.)

The lesson? "Try not to personalize it, even though that's easier said than done," she said. "Sometimes it's the littlest things that matter most to students."

Tell them you listened
Once you've asked for feedback, spend some time telling students you read their responses, Petersen said. This certainly includes telling them what you can change, such as ways to improve communication or requests for reasonable adjustments to pacing.

But of course students don't rule the day for your course. So it's also important to tell them what you can't do and why. Explaining to them that you considered their concerns, even if you can't accommodate those, is important, Petersen said, because it builds trust.

"Just the act of reporting it back -- that you're willing to consider it -- has been shown again and again to have a benefit for end-of-term evaluations," Petersen says.

So in the end (or, rather, at the midterm) instructors sometimes need to take the advice they hand out to students: The more you listen, the more you learn.

Midterm reviews will be one of the questions we address in end-of-term course assessments you all will have a chance to do this semester. This is a new activity we hope will give you insights about your teaching experience at HSJMC and fodder for future engagement with us.

So be on the lookout for word of get-togethers to discuss those end-of-term course assessments. But first, have a great spring break. You deserve it.

If you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.