A longitudinal investigation of the impact of faculty reflective practices on students' evaluations of teaching

Though there have been many studies conducted that emphasise faculty reflection as a crucial feature of professional practice, there appears to have been little empirical evidence to support the proposition that reflective practice improves the quality of teaching. Previous research demonstrated that reflective practice could be encouraged by weekly formative student evaluations of teaching (SETs). This study investigated the impact of reported reflective practice using formative SETs on changes to summative SETs, typically conducted at the end of a teaching period. Data was collected in a rural UK-based university-college in 11 modules (n = six faculty members, n = 413 students) in Business, Countryside and Environment, Foundation Degree and Veterinary Nursing programmes over the period of 2 years of data collection. Findings show that on average, SET scores increased for all reflective practitioners year on year and increased more for those faculty members who demonstrated higher levels of reflection.