A study of the uses of a blog-based critical incident questionnaire in further education.

Abstract

This study examines the use of a digital Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ), which was originally developed by Professor Stephen Brookfield, to extract perspectives of students on the lecture/lesson they had just conducted. Three FE colleges in the UK took part in the study and utilised a blog for students to post their comments. Students conducting media production courses at level three and four were the focus groups that submitted approaching two thousand CIQ responses over two academic years. The aim of utilising the CIQ was for a course tutor to receive additional perspectives on their practice and instant on-event feedback, resulting in identifying whether the learners mimicked the course tutor’s perspective. The findings indicate that the other perspectives gathered from the CIQ provided the course tutor with a greater understanding of their practice and assisted them in becoming more critically reflective. Additionally, some CIQ comments were different from the assumptions of the course tutor, which allowed them to adapt the delivery of the programme. Furthermore, utilising the data from the CIQ has identified that some of the comments students provide to the course tutor in-class do not mimic the comments of the CIQ. Moreover, comments received through the CIQ identify that there are also managerial implications, such as the usefulness and reliability of teaching observations, student induction and exit questionnaires. Utilising a blog format allowed students to submit their responses on a variety of digital devices, but some problems remained similar to Brookfield’s carbon paper-based system. There appears to be a definite place for using the CIQ in FE educational practice, and many best practice recommendations are constructed.