A critical analysis of using student evaluation feedback to enhance students’ experience of teaching and learning: Closing the loop

Abstract

Internationally, higher educational institutions have adopted students’ evaluation of teaching as a normative practice. Such student evaluations are normally used for ma king decisions on monitoring teaching and course quality as well as staff promotion. This paper critically reviews reports available on collecting, analysing and using student feed back to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. The review was combined with research findings from experiences and perspectives of Namibian higher education institutions. The paper established that in many higher educational institutions, there was a missing link between obtaining feedback from students and using this information to close the quality loop. The paper therefore recommends that in order to close the quality loop, there is a need for higher educational institutions to implement systematic approaches for collecting, analysing and using feedback; and for improving the communication of actions arising from results to all key stakeholders involved.