Teachers’ continuing professional development: using student evaluations to start a dialogue

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) is typically used to monitor educational quality. However, SET can also support teachers in their continuing professional development (CPD) by offering them insights into their performance as well as their learning needs. However, little is known about how teachers use and engage with SET as to shape their CPD and improve their teaching. To explore how feedback in SET informs teachers' CPD, four semi-structured focus groups with teachers (N = 24) in Higher Education were conducted and analysed thematically, using feedback literacy as an analytical lens. Results of the present study show that SET is used to inform teachers' CPD, especially informal learning. Informal learning activities included participants engaging in dialogues with different stakeholders, such as students, peers and colleagues, and their supervisor. These feedback dialogues had different purposes, such as making sense of the feedback, judging the feedback, but also to learn from the feedback. Judging feedback in SET depends on various factors, such as the experience and role of the teacher, the seniority of students, and whether the feedback was repeated. It is therefore recommended that higher educational institutions provide teachers with opportunities to discuss the feedback they received in SET, such as during peer-to-peer coaching sessions.