A scholarly approach to solving the feedback dilemma in practice

It is clear from the literature that feedback is potentially the most powerful and potent part of the assessment cycle when it comes to improving further student learning. However, for some time, there has been a growing amount of research evidence that much feedback practice does not fulfil this potential to influence future student learning because it fails in a host of different ways. This dilemma of the disjuncture between theory and practice has been increasingly highlighted by the UK National Student Survey results. This paper uses a model of the assessment process cycle to frame understandings drawn from the literature, and argues that the problem with much current practice resides largely in a failure to effectively engage students with feedback. The paper goes on to explore how best to effectively engage students with assessment feedback, with evidenced examples of feedback strategies that have successfully overcome this problem.

[1]  Marie Schmidt,et al.  Learning to Teach in Higher Education , 1992 .

[2]  M. Hammersley.  On 'systematic' reviews of research literatures: A 'narrative' response to Evans & Benefield , 2001 .

[3]  Chris Rust,et al.  Assessment Literacy: The Foundation for Improving Student Learning , 2012 .

[4]  Caroline Lodge,et al.  Gifts, ping-pong and loops – linking feedback and learning , 2004 .

[5]  Chris Rust.  A Briefing on Assessment of Large Groups , 2007 .

[6]  V. Shute.  Focus on Formative Feedback , 2007 .

[7]  A. Chickering,et al.  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education , 1987, CORE.

[8]  David Nicol,et al.  Quality enhancement themes : the first year experience : transforming assessment and feedback : enhancing integration and empowerment in the first year , 2009 .

[9]  D. Boud,et al.  Aligning assessment with long‐term learning , 2006 .

[10]  R. Higgins,et al.  The Conscientious Consumer: Reconsidering the role of assessment feedback in student learning , 2002 .

[11]  S. Merry.  Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher Education : Developing dialogue with students , 2013 .

[12]  Ron James Fisher,et al.  Assisting transition to university: using assessment as a formative learning tool , 2011 .

[13]  Chris Rust,et al.  Developing student understanding of assessment standards: a nested hierarchy of approaches , 2008 .

[14]  D. Laplane.  Thought and language. , 1992, Behavioural neurology.

[15]  T D Wickens,et al.  When further learning fails: stability and change following repeated presentation of text. , 2000, British journal of psychology.

[16]  Dave King,et al.  Does it make a difference? Replacing text with audio feedback. , 2008 .

[17]  Joanna Bull,et al.  Assessing student learning in higher education , 1997 .

[18]  Chris Rust,et al.  A social constructivist assessment process model: how the research literature shows us this could be best practice , 2005 .

[19]  C. Cassell,et al.  Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research , 2004 .

[20]  V. McCune.  Development of first-year students' conceptions of essay writing , 2004 .

[21]  P. Black,et al.  Assessment and Classroom Learning , 1998 .

[22]  C. Bryan,et al.  Innovative Assessment in Higher Education , 2006 .

[23]  Andrea Raiker.  Assessment for learning , 2007 .

[24]  Abd El-Rahman,et al.  Improving the quality of student learning , 2003 .

[25]  J. Bruner.  Actual minds, possible worlds , 1985 .

[26]  David Boud,et al.  The Impact of Self-assessment on Achievement: The effects of self-assessment training on performance in external examinations , 2003 .

[27]  Ray Land,et al.  Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge , 2013 .

[28]  Chris Rust,et al.  The Student Experience of Criterion-Referenced Assessment (Through the Introduction of a Common Criteria Assessment Grid) , 2001 .

[29]  D. Royce,et al.  Sadler, D. R. (2013) 'Opening up feedback: Teaching learners to see'. In Merry, S., Price, M., Carless, D., & Taras, M. (Eds.) Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher Education: developing dialogue with students. (Ch. 5, 54-63). , 2013 .

[30]  Martyn Hammersley,et al.  What is Analytic Induction , 2012 .

[31]  David Nicol,et al.  From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education , 2010 .

[32]  J. Bruner.  Acts of meaning , 1990 .

[33]  B. Fraser.  Identifying the Salient Facets of a Model of Student Learning: A Synthesis of Meta Analyses. , 1987 .

[34]  M. Weaver,et al.  Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors’ written responses , 2006 .

[35]  Sally Brown,et al.  Assessment literacy: the foundation for improving student learning , 2014 .

[36]  Vanessa Everson.  Continuous Assessment : an antidote for "selective negligence"? "Feedback? No, just give us the answers" , 2010 .

[37]  Chris Rust,et al.  Towards a scholarship of assessment , 2007 .

[38]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[39]  P. Knight,et al.  Assessing learners in higher education , 1998 .

[40]  Nancy Falchikov,et al.  Improving Assessment through Student Involvement: Practical Solutions for Aiding Learning in Higher and Further Education , 2005 .

[41]  Jan H. F. Meyer,et al.  Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning , 2005 .

[42]  Jan McArthur,et al.  No longer exempt from good practice: using exemplars to close the feedback gap for exams , 2013 .

[43]  Rethinking Grades for Sustainable Learning , 2002 .

[44]  Mary Lea,et al.  Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach , 1998 .

[45]  Richard Freeman,et al.  Planning and Implementing Assessment , 1998 .

[46]  Chris Rust,et al.  Improving Students' Learning by Developing their Understanding of Assessment Criteria and Processes , 2003 .

[47]  Gavin T. L. Brown,et al.  Students’ conceptions of assessment: Links to outcomes , 2008 .

[48]  C. Evans.  Making Sense of Assessment Feedback in Higher Education , 2013 .

[49]  D. Carless.  Differing perceptions in the feedback process , 2006 .

[50]  D. Sadler.  Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems , 1989 .

[51]  D. Nicol,et al.  Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice , 2006 .

[52]  Effie Maclellan,et al.  Assessment for Learning: The differing perceptions of tutors and students , 2001 .

[53]  M. Price,et al.  Feedback : all that effort, but what is the effect? , 2010 .

[54]  Khin Win,et al.  Formative feedback to students: the mismatch between faculty perceptions and student expectations , 2008, Medical teacher.

[55]  Jim Hillage,et al.  Excellence in research on schools , 1998 .

[56]  Graham Gibbs,et al.  The effects of programme assessment environments on student learning , 2007 .

[57]  H. King.  Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge , 2006 .

[58]  D. Carless,et al.  Developing sustainable feedback practices , 2011 .

[59]  C. Reich.  Peer assessment. , 1985, Canadian Medical Association journal.

[60]  Andreas Fejes,et al.  Grading systems, features of assessment and students’ approaches to learning , 2009 .