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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
