ACU Alliance Aims to Develop Research Instrument for Student Feedback

MMG Education is continually seeking out global best practice methodologies, analytical processes and research instruments that will enhance the quality and richness of information for Australian schools. In a move to bolster best practice, MMG has entered into an alliance with the Australian Catholic University (ACU), alongside Professor Herb Marsh to develop a Student Evaluation of Educational Quality model.

According to MMG Education, research continues to reinforce that the quality of teaching is the most important reason for parents’ choice of school for their children.

Quality of teaching and, in particular, parents’ and students’ views of the variation in teaching quality is also having a major impact on parents’ perceptions of school academic standards, focus and results. This is also impacting the classroom experience of students and their motivation to embrace the learning process.

Over the past three years, MMG Education has incorporated a small suite of questions for students from Years 7 to 12 that obtain their feedback on aspects of their teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom.

The objective of the partnership with the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at ACU, under the direction of Professor Herb Marsh, is to develop a best practice research instrument that will be used to obtain informed feedback from students regarding their teachers.

The aim is to assist teachers and Heads of Departments with professional development and ongoing improvement in teaching skill sets. The methodology developed by Professor Marsh is as follows:

• Develop a suit of questions from accredited sources globally for the pilot study.
• Gain agreement from a small number of schools to collaborate with MMG Education in allowing the pilot to be conducted at their school.
• Conduct the pilot with schools.
• Analyse and validate findings.
• Provide feedback to pilot schools.
• Develop the final survey instrument for client schools.

On completion of the pilot study, Professor Marsh will validate findings and develop and design a refined survey instrument which will be included in MMG Education’s service offering in 2018.