The Impact of Faculty Feedback on Student Perceptions of Faculty-Student Relationships

Abstract

This qualitive study examined four communication sciences and disorders (CSD) graduate students’ experiences with feedback from CSD faculty members to understand how it affected their relationships with faculty. Review of the literature revealed the importance and impact of feedback; however, it offered little research examining feedback within the field of CSD. Graduate CSD students who completed their undergraduate degrees in CSD were interviewed to reflect on feedback experiences they received from faculty during their undergraduate and graduate education. The students were also presented with two mock papers with differing feedback styles and were asked their reactions to the feedback. It was discovered that feedback received directly contributed to faculty’s overall perceived approachability, with more imbalanced critical feedback increasing the perception of unapproachability towards faculty members. Additionally, the feedback modality, language used, and balance of positive and negative comments strongly influenced participant’s perception of the feedback being given as an inherently pleasant or unpleasant.