Student Responses to and Perceptions of Feedback Received on a Series of Model-Eliciting Activities: A Case Study

One challenge in implementing open-ended problems i s a sessing students’ responses because the open-ended nature of the problems allow for num erous suitable, “good” responses. Specifically, formative assessment providing the students with feedback on intermittent solutions can be especially challenging when it i s hoped that students will understand and respond to the feedback in ways that indicate learn ing has taken place. The aim of this study is to examine how students in a first-year engineering course perceive and respond to feedback received from a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) a nd their peers as they iterate through multiple drafts of their solutions to Model-Eliciti ng Activities (MEAs). In this paper, we report case findings based upon three interviews each from our students from a single team that participated in the interviews following three MEAs implemented in a single semester. Findings indicated all four students struggled with the feed back received from their peers. The students agreed GTA feedback was helpful in improving their MEA solutions and was more useful than the peer feedback. However, the students had contr adic ory perceptions of the level of specificity and vagueness in the GTA feedback. Thi s study supports the notion that students need training and education both in how to give fee dback as well as how to respond to feedback.