Feedback on Teaching
Student feedback on teaching is complicated. When it comes to improving student learning, I do not find the standardized scoresheets used at the faculty of medicine helpful. The informal conversations over lunch offer some insights, and so does the occasional email from students. However, this feedback remains anecdotal. Although I do see teaching as a performance, and usually get applause, I am not convinced giving a good performance is what best translates into student learning. Provoking students to ignite discussions that continue outside the classroom, for instance, could result in poor student evaluation and good learning outcomes. Finally, the standardized multiple-choice questions (MCQs) is a poor tool for measuring the level of reflection I hope to instill in my students. For my discipline, MCQs makes constructive alignment difficult to achieve.
The feedback I have found most helpful has come from asking the student-representatives to collect and forward anonymous feedback through Facebook. I have done this after testing radically new approaches, such as the guided notes. Similarly, reflection notes serve both as an assessment method and a way to gauge student learning. On the other hand, reflective notes invite individual feedback that is time consuming and does not scale well. Here is a selection of written feedback on my teaching (link).
In 2011, I was the first winner of The Pieter van Foreest Student Prize from the European Association for the History of Health and Medicine, a prize for best lecture by a student given at the biannual conference.