This was a great conference – some really excellent analysis and research on assessment feedback which has significant implications for re-considering how we do things.
Professor David Carless, University of Hong Kong gave a thought-provoking keynote drawing on his work with David Boud, Deakin University/ University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, on enabling uptake of feedback.
The main theme of the conference was improving the effectiveness of feedback for students. The starting point for this is to re-conceptualise feedback as a process, and to develop student feedback ‘literacy’: the understandings, capacities and dispositions needed to make productive use of feedback information.
Feedback is a process in which learners make sense of comments and use these to enhance their work or learning strategies (Carless and Boud, 2018)
Feedback is not transmission of information by tutors to students, but a process involving many players that can occur prior to or following the submission of formal assessment tasks. The aim of a feedback process is to close the loop to improve students’ performance.
Want to know more, see David Carless & David Boud (2018): The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354
Some provocative lines of thinking from the conference
- Feedback is emotional – we need to recognise this
- Student views of the effectiveness of feedback (and their engagement/satisfaction) depends in large part on the staff/student relationship
- The ‘problem’ is not that students don’t recognise feedback – they do; student surveys show students value staff who are approachable, caring, provide structured support and are accessible (feedback)
- Timeliness is key students must have opportunities to make use of feedback provided ….
- Students tend to disengage with feedback over time … and especially feedback on end of module assignments
- We should put more emphasis on providing feedback ‘up front’ in terms of assignment briefs, rubrics, formative and continuous assessment strategies – put bluntly detailed feedback on end of module assignments is a waste of time
- Modelling the feedback process for students by for example engaging them with the academic research review process – eg engaging them with tutor’s first drafts, reviewer comments and final drafts of published research papers
- Student feedback challenges: too much at the end and not enough during the module; not aligned with student interests and needs; feedback experienced as ‘telling’;
- Action on feedback is developed through agency, dialogue and co-construction
- Can reassessment be reconceptualised to focus much more on learning: see
Implications for practice
- Invite students to state what feedback they want
- Ask students to state the previous feedback they have used to strengthen their next assignment
- Design learning experiences/assessments which position students as active feedback users
- Enable students to become skilled givers and receivers of feedback
- Engage students in discussion and evaluation of exemplars
- Focus more on assignment briefs and formative assessment and less on feedback on end of module assignments …..
Resource
Assessment for Learning website: http://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/default.asp
Advance notice of next year’s conference – call for papers will be in October: International AHE Conference 26 & 27 June 2019 Manchester UK