Student feedback is essential to the type of teaching and learning Wofford does best. That’s why Wofford’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning has instituted student fellows to provide timely and effective communications.
The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning was established in 2023 with the goal of promoting effective and innovative teaching practices that engage and cultivate student learning. Dr. Justin Bailey, director of CETL, decided to involve students in the process of furthering this mission soon after.
Currently, CETL has two student fellows: Jenna Hollis ’26, an English major with minors in education and religious studies from Duncan, South Carolina, and Tianna Kidd ’25, a senior French and biology double major from Greenwood, South Carolina.
“My hope is that CETL and the CETL student fellows will empower students at Wofford to take an active role in reflecting on teaching and learning within their courses,” Bailey says.
The feedback these student fellows provide is sometimes as simple as a note of appreciation from a student. The fellows hosted a “Thank a Prof” table April 7-8 in the Mungo Student Center, where students wrote letters of gratitude to their professors at Wofford that were delivered across campus.
Hollis and Kidd also help faculty receive student feedback through a process known as GIFT: group instructional feedback technique.
Professors who are interested in feedback will allow student fellows to use approximately 20 minutes at the end of one class session to meet with students without the professor in the room.
“The questions we ask are usually pretty generic,” Hollis says. “What does this professor do well? How do you think you're performing in this class? What could you do as a student to be better? What's the hardest thing to learn in this class?”
“We can also add in tailored questions,” Kidd says. “The professor may say, ‘I really want their feedback, because I haven’t done this exercise before. Can you ask them what they think about it? Is it helpful?’”
Following the student-led discussion, CETL fellows pass out forms for the students to fill out and return. All answers are compiled by the fellows, and the students’ identities are kept confidential. The report is then given to the professor by the fellows for further discussion.
“I think that’s what’s really important about this: We’re meeting with students and professors in the middle of the semester so that professors can receive feedback earlier in the course rather than just at the end of the semester. In this way, both parties can benefit,” Kidd says.
Dr. Joseph Spivey, associate professor and chair of the mathematics department, worked with the student fellows to receive midterm feedback in the fall semester. Beyond simply allowing for midsemester changes, Spivey says the feedback can promote more open dialogue with students about teaching methods.
“Sometimes, students do have changes that they want to see happen in the class, and sometimes those things I’m not comfortable doing, but it at least gives me an opportunity to explain to students the way that I’m doing it,” Spivey says. “I think that helps students, too.”
“By creating a culture in which both students and faculty engage in shared reflection on the teaching and learning process, we aim to improve the educational experience for everyone,” Bailey says.
The fellows hope that the initiatives they have implemented in their first year will help further strengthen the bonds between students and professors, allowing for learning to be more collaborative.
“I think this is working out to be something special, and it adds to the long list of reasons why I love Wofford,” Kidd says.
For more information or to participate, contact Bailey at baileyjp@wofford.edu.