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Student Feedback Survey: Subject delivery consistent
with its stated objectives
Good teaching involves finding out from students where they experience difficulties in
learning the subject matter, what outcomes they have not achieved and what aspects of
your teaching can be changed to ensure high quality learning. Your subject’s objectives
play an important role of orientating students to how they can achieve good results in
your subject. The primary aim in collecting feedback on your aims and objectives is to
identify whether your teaching and learning activities enable students to develop the
knowledge and skills expected in your subject or whether the students perceive little
relationship between how they were taught and the subject’s stated goals.
There are many reasons why your students may have responded that your subject was
not delivered in a way that is consistent with its stated objectives. The objectives may
have been ambiguously stated in the subject outline. The students may not have
understood the changes in their thinking and knowledge that you want them to achieve.
Or the teaching and learning activities may not have been sufficiently closely related to
the objectives.
This brief guide provides suggestions on how to clarify the aims and objectives for your
students. It lists resources which can assist you writing clearer aims and objectives your
subjects objectives. It also suggests ways you can align your teaching and learning
activities to your subjects objectives. Should you would like to discuss any of these
issues further once you have read through the guide, you can contact your faculty’s IML
representative whose name is listed below.
Writing clear objectives
Aims are the general statements of educational intent for your subject, normally found in
your Faculty Handbook. Objectives are the more specific and concrete statements of
what the students are expected to learn. In other words, they represent the steps you
expect the students to take to meet the subject’s aims. The students are acutely aware
that you will prefer to see some results ahead of others. If you make these objectives
clear to your students it will help them to prepare for you subject and provide them with
the means to focus their learning on what is important in your subject.
As your objectives are used to explain your intentions to other people it is important that
they are written clearly without the use of vague term such as "to understand" or "to
appreciate". There are a number of sources of information to help you clarify what you
would like your students to achieve in your class. Most of them describe a clear objective
as consisting of 3 main parts:
1 It describes what the learner will be doing
2 It describe the important conditions under which the learner will be learning
3 It indicates how the learner will be evaluated
Two commonly used taxonomies of objectives are the SOLO taxonomy by Biggs (2003)
and the taxonomy developed by Bloom and his colleagues (1956). These and other
taxonomies are used to clarifying what the student is expected to do to achieve the
appropriate level of understanding in your subject. For example, both taxonomies classify
analysis and synthesis as demonstrating a higher level of understanding to the recall of
information. A statement of objective needs to be written for each intended learning
outcome, and checked with a colleague that it is clearly and concisely worded.
Developing students understanding of objectives
Research conducted by Paul Ramsden (2003) shows that the beginning of any course is a
period of uncertainty and confusion. Without a clear understanding of the course goals
students are likely to become disorientated and waste time trying to discover what it is
you want them to learn. Naturally, you have ensured that your students have access to
the subject outline as early in the semester as possible. However, you cannot expect that
access to the document means that students will have read your objectives and
understood what it is they are expected to learn. It is important that you provide
students with an opportunity in your class to know why they are learning these things.
Helping students translate the learning objectives into learning outcomes allows them to
see exactly what they are, when they are due and what standard of work that is
expected. A discussion of the objectives is your opportunity to demonstrate your
enthusiasm for the subject and the relevance to the overall course.
Alignment of teaching and learning activities with objectives
Your teaching and learning activities need to provide students with opportunities to
acquire the knowledge and skills they require to demonstrate that they have met the
subject’s objectives. It is critical that the students are actively involved and that they are
able to gauge their own progress toward meeting the objective. If you suspect your
teaching and learning activities are not providing student with the appropriate knowledge
and skills, ask your subject coordinator for suggestions on how to strengthen the link
between the objectives and what the students do in the classroom.
Further Reading
> Biggs, J. (19993). Teaching for quality leanring in higher education. Open Uni8versity
Press.
> Bloom, B. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1, Cognitive
Domain. New York:Longman.
> Mager, R. (1962) Preparing Instructional Objectives, California: Lear Siegler, Inc.
> Ramsden, P. (2003), Learning to Teach in Higher Education, London: Routledge
It would be appropriate to take your initial response to your student feedback results to
your academic supervisor. The IML can also assist in interpreting your student feedback
results. If you like to discuss any aspect of your teaching, please contact the IML liaison
person within your faculty. Details are on the IML web site:
http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/about/contact.html
The IML welcomes feedback, suggestions and contributions to this guide on improving student
feedback. Please contact Peter.Kandlbinder@uts.edu.au with suggestions for future items of
interest.