Scottish Quality Enhancement Workshop on Improving Feedback to Students, University of Glasgow 4 June 2004 REINVENTING FEEDBACK FOR THE CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH

Scottish Quality Enhancement Workshop on Improving Feedback to Students, University of Glasgow

4 June 2004

REINVENTING FEEDBACK FOR THE CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH

UNIVERSITY

Dai Hounsell

University of Edinburgh

THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT FOR FEEDBACK

well-grounded evidence on feedback’s impact on learning and its value for students

concerns about shrinking opportunities for feedback, in the wake of :

larger classes more diverse students declining unit resources ‘end-loaded’ assessment regimes

new ways of sustaining feedback that won’t put unrealistic burdens on staff

PRESENTATION AIMS

• is best given on conventional coursework

• needn’t be immediate nor prompt

• is given on ‘finished’ work• is private and individual• is in written form

• comprises comments and a grade

• is transparent and addressable• is best provided by the lecturer• doesn’t call for great skill or

hard-won expertise

1. Questioning traditional assumptions that feedback …

PRESENTATION AIMS

2. Re-inventing practices

to suggest new directions for feedback which:

are feasible and sustainable

reflect recent insights from research, and

developments in practices

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

A working [re-]definition of feedback

any information, process or activity which ‘affords’ or accelerates learning, whether by enabling students to achieve higher-quality learning outcomes than they might have otherwise attained, or by enabling them to attain these outcomes more rapidly

Key functions of feedback

To evaluate progress, performance or achievement To encourage and support To instil a grasp of high-quality work and how it might

be achieved

ASSUMPTION ONEFeedback is [best] given on conventional coursework

GROUNDS FOR QUESTIONING

post-exam feedback is rare, while feedback on non-traditional assignments can be discretionary or perfunctory

I think it’s very important to get the feedback because on another course I’d done the presentation and received really no feedback so you’re swimming around wondering, well, you know, are you actually moving in the right direction? I think actually having written feedback as well, and the way it was set out, has been very useful. It’s just picked up on your weaknesses but also your strengths as well so giving you some direction on what you really now have to go and focus on.[Social Sciences student]

ASSUMPTION ONE [continued]


declining volume of coursework, and reduced opportunities for interaction in tutorial and practicals

the potential of intrinsic as well as extrinsic feedback, i.e.

• Intrinsic opportunities within everyday teaching and learning to grasp tutors’ expectations, and practise meeting them

• Extrinsic opportunities to get feedback on assignments completed outwith class time

ASSUMPTION ONE [continued]

S: The problem solving sessions we have at the end of this module, they’re something you don’t get in all the modules and it’s really helpful especially for one of the papers in the exam, the problem solving bit.

S1: You’ve got your [unit handbook] that tells you all your references and learning objectives for each lecture.

S2: And the lecture actually itself, and then afterwards it’s like discussions been done and then you’ve got the reference…

S3: And even answers to the problems that we’ve done. And the discussions afterwards. If you miss anything during the lesson you have it.

S4: It’s really demanding because you have to think and do a lot of work for it, but in the end, they give you the basis for to succeed. If you do work, of course. So it’s good.

(from McCune, Hounsell and Nisbet, 2004)

SCOPE FOR REINVENTING PRACTICES

a. ENLARGING THE SCOPE FOR FEEDBACK

widening opportunities for students to gain constructive feedback on their progress and performance

try to ensure that exams are not feedback-free zones

build student-generated feedback into non-traditional assignments

blend extrinsic with intrinsic feedback

ASSUMPTION TWOFeedback needn’t be immediate or prompt


feedback, immediacy and timeousness

lack of engagement with ‘end-loaded’ feedback

assignments with “no past or future” (Roe, 1974)

unintended consequences of modularisation and semesterisation


b. RESCHEDULING FEEDBACK

rescheduling assignments and assessments, to optimise rich, timely and constructive feedback

earlier deadlines, faster turn-round times for marks and comments

more but shorter assignments

staged or cumulative assignments

[c.f. the ‘patchwork text’]

ASSUMPTION THREEFeedback is given on ‘finished’ work


feedback as a loop

“When we desire a motion to follow a given pattern, the difference between this pattern and the actually performed motion is used as a new input to cause the part regulated to move in such a way as to bring its motion closer to that given by the pattern”

(Wiener, 1961, p.6)

experience and practices in peer review and postgraduate research supervision


c. FEED-FORWARD

enabling students to engage constructively with tutor’s comments and gain practice in revising

a draft-comment-revision strategy, so that feedback is put to direct and immediate use

more comment on work-in-progress, less on finished work

help students learn how to use feedback to improve their work

ASSUMPTION FOURFeedback is private and individual


dearth of empirical evidence that feedback to individuals is superior to group or whole-class feedback

feedback as dialogue and interchange


d. WHOLE-CLASS FEEDBACK

use time for feedback more effectively, through greater group or class feedback and less comment to individuals

combine rich ‘generic’ comments to the class with pro forma ratings to individuals

use whole-class feedback to focus on positives, e.g. alternative ways of answering a question well

use whole-class briefings for ‘feed-forward’

ASSUMPTION FIVEFeedback comments are written


providing legible and accessible written comments is time-consuming

the largely untapped feedback potential of new technologies


e. e-FEEDBACK

using new technology to generate, communicate, retrieve and monitor feedback more efficiently

audio-feedback as a viable (and less time-consuming?) alternative to written comment

machine-readable pro-formas, to identify feedback priorities

use software to generate feedback comments

ASSUMPTION SIXFeedback = comments + (mark or grade)


Decline of one-to-one tutorial/feedback dialogue

Observation as a proxy for feedback comments, e.g. where work is not privately submitted but on display

S1: You’ve got hands when you’re presenting, it’s so good.S2: I was noticing that when I was doing it.S1: No but you used your hands when you were talking about the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere, and it was great because you don’t actually have to give all the details. Like a diagram, you can point to bits. I think it helps if you follow a structure. Like [lecturer X] always … tells you what he’s going to say more or less and then elaborates on all the points, which I think is really good for notetaking…


f. COLLABORATIVE AND ON-DISPLAY ASSIGNMENTS

devising assignments in which students pool knowledge, insights, and strategies, and/or openly display their work to their peers

joint literature reviews, collaborative analyses of data, group projects, &c.

oral or poster presentations, or ‘walkabout-talkabout’ displays of analyses, solutions, interpretations &c.

any of these, plus peer-generated feedback

ASSUMPTION SEVENFeedback is transparent and readily addressable


students’ difficulties in making sense of tutors’ feedback

uncertainty about assessment expectations and criteria

variations in requirements - across lecturers, course units and subjects

student uncertainty about how to act on the feedback given

ASSUMPTION SEVEN [continued]

Sandra (from James, 2000)

“You think, it would be nice to know why it was excellent, then perhaps I could do it again! As I haven’t got any idea why it was excellent, I’ll never be able to, but there you go.

Gail (from Hounsell, 1987)

“I felt pretty satisfied with it. I thought I’d get a brilliant mark for it. I was really put off when I saw the tutor’s comments. I just thought it was ‘What limits a person’s ability to do two things at once?’ Not why, or how it was done. I just answered the question, which the tutor didn’t think was right.”

ASSUMPTION SEVEN [continued]

Explain

A bit confused

Linkage?

?

??

!

(…)(from Ivanic et al., 2000)

“I don’t think that they are marked for us. They are marked for them. So if they write anything in the margins, it’s not so we will know not to do it again. It’s so they will remember that we’ve done it wrong, when they add up the marks." (ETL Project)


g. CRITERION-FOCUSSED FEEDBACK

making assignment and assessment criteria more transparent, better exemplified, and linked to marks and comments

guidance on assessment criteria linked to a bank of examples

use pro forma mark-and-comment sheets

gear whole-class feedback to toughest criteria

ASSUMPTION EIGHTFeedback is [best] provided by the teacher


fast-growing involvement of students – and pupils – in assessment and feedback

growing awareness of benefits of self-generated and peer feedback


h. STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN FEEDBACK

developing students’

capacity to:

• engage with strengths and weaknesses in their own work

• evaluate others’ work• give constructive feedback

students pre-specify what feedback they would most like

students apply familiar criteria to evaluate their own work; or adapt them to an unfamiliar task

students identify high-quality by their peers

students pool ideas on how work can be improved

ASSUMPTION NINEBecoming expert at giving feedback isn’t hard


Evidence of large disparities in feedback across courses and tutors

New lecturers’ experiences of marking and commenting

Dearth of accessible discussion and examples of good feedback


i. ENHANCED FEEDBACK EXPERTISE

encouraging colleagues to collate and share their insights and experiences on giving feedback well

inducting and mentoring new colleagues in providing effective feedback

blend second-marking with consultation on what feedback would be most effective

collaborate in the use of technology to generate feedback

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

The possibilities reviewed here entail re-thinking:

• when feedback is given, for maximum impact

• how feedback can be generated and communicated

• what functions feedback fulfils . . .

. . . and what other complementary ways might be open to you, in accelerating students’ learning

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

The utility and feasibility of any one of these possibilities is likely to vary from course to course

Many of these possibilities are probably already being pursued in a department near you…

Documents

Scottish Quality Enhancement Workshop on Improving Feedback to Students, University of Glasgow 4 June 2004 REINVENTING FEEDBACK FOR THE CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH