Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore teacher perceptions of student feedback surveys on their teaching. This includes the extent to which teachers agree with feedback, how the feedback might impact instruction, and the impact of this feedback on teacher reflection.Methods. High school teachers at a public, suburban high school in Southern California were participants in this study. A questionnaire instrument was used which employed open-ended and closed-ended questions to collect teacher-participant data.Findings. The findings were organized into four overarching themes that included a) student feedback aids in instruction/teaching; b) negative comments from students help to spur reflection; c) student feedback helps to build relationships between teachers and students, and; d) teachers must be vulnerable to feedback. Teachers overwhelmingly indicated that they were open to receiving feedback but also indicated that there was some trepidation about using this feedback in all contexts. Connections between student feedback and teacher reflection were also established; student feedback provides the input necessary in the reflective process.Conclusions. Teacher participants generally believed that student feedback has value and it can be used to provide input on how teaching can be adjusted. Participants also indicated that student feedback would be helpful in their ability to build relationships with their students. Student voices have the ability to shift power dynamics in a school system and their voices also provide input on teacher reflection about teaching.Recommendations. Future research could expand the number of participants or conduct a similar study at a school where student feedback surveys are already implemented. Other recommendations include the expansion of the data collection into interviews and observations. While this study did not utilize live student data, there would certainly be value in asking teachers to collect live perception data from their own students and then study teacher reactions, including their reflective process and changes to pedagogy in response to that information.