Senior Faculty

Teaching-Related Feedback and Mentoring

GIFT

GIFT is an acronym that stands for Group Instructional Feedback Technique, which implies talking to students in groups or as a whole in the absence of their instructor.

Faculty may request GIFT for the following reasons:

• Students may be willing to speak openly to another instructor rather than their own instructor.
• Valuable feedback may be obtained from students, which should help to assess and improve teaching by faculty who requested GIFT.
• Faculty may not want to wait until receiving student feedback in the form of student evaluations.

Timing

In requesting GIFT (click here for Request Form), timing is of the essence. Ideally, faculty should schedule a GIFT following the distribution of the first-exam grades to students. This timing allows students to better assess their own efforts as well as those of their instructor.

Process

Depending on faculty’s preference, the process of executing GIFT may include the following:

• Pre-conference
• Post-conference (Debriefing)
• Formal or informal documentation of consultation.

Faculty can expect the following from Peer Consultants/Mentors when requesting a GIFT:

1. The Consultant/Mentor will meet with faculty prior to conducting GIFT in your class and explain
   • the purpose and process of GIFT.
   • that faculty has the ownership of GIFT. It means that the Consultant/Mentor cannot ask his/her own questions to students. The Consultant/Mentor is not allowed to make any positive or negative comments about faculty or students. GIFT is the GIFT-requesting faculty’s show. It means that faculty determines the questions that will be asked to students by the Consultant/Mentor.
2. The Consultant/Mentor will discuss with faculty about the various feedback methods. Faculty may request a written statement that summarizes students’ answers to the questions. Or faculty may want to discuss the content of the answers with the Consultant/Mentor. Faculty decides about the delivery method associated with feedback on GIFT.   

As indicated before, faculty determines the question content. However, faculty should keep in mind that short and to-the-point questions are more likely to deliver meaningful feedback. In the following, you will find a sample questionnaire.

To request GIFT fill out the Request Form.

To apply to serve as Peer Consultant/Mentor fill out the Application to Serve as Consultant/Mentor Form. Also, familiarize yourself with the Guidelines for Becoming a Consultant/Mentor.