Electronic Feedback in Higher Education

1
Electronic Feedback in Higher Education

• Olga Dysthe
• olga.dysthe_at_iuh.uib.no
• Department of Education
• University of Bergen, Norway
• Presentation at 4th Conference of the European
  Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing
• 30.6- 2.7, 2007 Ruhr- Universität Bochum, Germany

2
Overview of presentation

• Different theoretical approaches to feedback
• A sociocultural theory perspective
• Three case studies at the University of Bergen
• History Department
• Faculty of Law
• Department of Education
• Conclusion Insights for writing teachers?

3
E-feedback research exists in several fields

• Writing research (response)
• Assessment research (formative assess)
• Education (learning processes)
• Linguistics
• Second language research L2
• TelTechnology enhanced learning

4
Advantages of e-feedback reported in research
studies (Hyland Hyland)

• More studies of feedback as part of on-line
  conferencing than about one-to-one e-feedback
• allow students to take a more active role
• e-feedback a hybrid of oral and written feedback
  
• the informality and immediacy of oral
  communication
• the permanency of written communication
• available at any time.
• encourage group knowledge and student
  participation (Warschauer, 2002)
• give more control and agency to students, instead
  of passive reliance on teacher feedback to fix
  their writing
• offer alternative spaces for academic student
  involvement
• more democratic power structures
• reduced risk environment (Selfe, 1992)
• transparency
• widely available
• creates audience awareness (Ware, 2004)

5
Three cases of feedback practices in Higher
Education

• History -
• What are the effects of the transparency afforded
  by technology?
• What is the reason for the missing link between
  feedback and revision?
• Law
• Does the feedback system contribute to making
  students dependent on authoritative
  interpretations or independent and self reliant?
• Education
• the importance of disagreement and divergent
  voices

6
Three theory perspectives on feedback for recent
renewal of interest in feedback

• Behavioristic stimulus-response theories
• focuses on the teachers or the automated
  feedback systems (e.g., Mørch et al., 2005)
  effective delivery of feedback to students
• Cognitive
• based on constructivism, and emphasises student
  autonomy and self-regulation as its main goal
  (Nicol Macfarlane-Dick, 2006)
• Sociocultural
• feedback practices must be studied in context of
  the learning ecology and the disciplinary
  characteristics
• the importance of dialogic interaction and joint
  activity (Tannacito, 2004)

7
Sociocultural perspective

• A broad understanding of feedback - not only the
  response-giving activity, but the whole process,
  including how students receive and utilise the
  feedback
• The epistemological basis of the authoritative
  model of feedback differs from the
  epistemological foundation of the dialogic
  model
• e-feedback must be regarded as a joint activity,
  presupposing interactions between actively
  participating students and teachers
• enculturation of students into diverse academic
  communities of practice

8
Feedback as a joint activity

• Piaget the productive role of disagreement in
  socio-cognitive conflicts is based on the idea of
  cognitive decentering
• Vygotskyan understanding of intersubjectivity
  based on his theory about interpsychological
  communication being transformed through processes
  of internalization and appropriation
• Bakhtins dialogism
• tension and struggle between multiple voices
• the authoritative and the inner persuasive word

9
Participatory notion of intersubjectivity

• Matusov (1998) unlike intersubjectivity as
  sharing, the participatory notion of
  intersubjectivity is joint-activity oriented
  rather than individual-oriented (p. 32).
• The traditional concept of intersubjectivity as
  sharing stresses reproductive aspects of learning
  and culture as a whole at the expense of their
  productive, creative aspects. This notion of
  sharing is designed to describe stable,
  preservative trends in the culture (p. 33).
• Rommetveit (1974) theoretised intersubjectivity
  as a reciprocal perspective focused on the
  importance of the participants building a
  temporarily shared social reality (TSSR).

10
Bakhtin the authoritative and the inner
persuasive word

• The authoritative word demands that the listener
  acknowledges it as the truth. Because it is
  hierarchical and distanced, bearing a previous
  authority, it binds the listener regardless of
  any power it may have to persuade him or her
  internally. It does not demand free reflection
  about its content, but our unconditional
  allegiance (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 343).
• Internally persuasive discourse is supported by
  the power of its argument as it is affirmed
  through assimilation, tightly interwoven with
  ones own word (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 345).
• IMPORTANT Tension and struggle between
  conflicting views and interpretations
• Consequences for feedback?

11
Critical issues reported in research

• Students reluctant to trust their peers
• Careful preparation and training in peer response
  needed for success
• Possibility of misinterpretation due to the lack
  of synchrony
• Disadvantage of relying on e-feedback for less
  technological savvy students Lindblom-Ylänne and
  Pihlajamäki (2003)
• Needs to be integrated into the curriculum
  (Hyland Hyland, 2006, p. 94)

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Case 1 History Creating a culture for
collective e-response and transparency, not for
productive revision?

• The context
• undergraduate, modularized courses in ancient and
  modern hist
• portfolios consisting of 1. draft of
  argumentative texts
• Organization structuring
• compulsory peer comments posted in VLE, then
  teacher comments
• Positive findings
• e-feedback increased learning potential
• Transparency was important all comments
  available to all
• Better quality feedback
• Multivoiced
• Negative findings
• No necessary connection between good feedback and
  better texts
• Revision as the black box of writing process

13
Case 2 Law Structuring student writing and
response processes fostering authoritative or
inner persuasive word?

• Context
• Major restructuring of the progamme due to high
  failure rates and dissatisfaction
• The Quality Reform in HE (Bologna)
• Undergraduate, modularized law courses
• Organization structuring
• Very strict structuring of students study cycles
• Extensive use of TAs (3rd year students) to give
  feedback
• Positive findings
• Big improvements in failure rates (from 30 to
  5)
• Successful enculturation into writing practices
  in law
• Student satisfaction
• Feedback comments constitute important new
  learning resource
• Negative findings
• Demotivation because of too strict structuring
  and control
• Lack of independence, fear of failure
  authoritative word?

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Net-based master in educationMost productive
e-feedback focused on divergent voices,
disagreement and conflict

• The context
• Netbased, parttime master programme
• Main goal Production of thesis
• Organization structuring
• regular assignments revision two versions of
  every text
• compulsory peer feedback posted in VLE
• individual advisors comments posted in VLE
• Positive findings
• feedback practices challenged students demand
  for correct (authoritative) answers
• Constructive criticism and opposition most
  productive
• Importance of divergent voices
• Negative findings
• lack of trust in peer feedback reliance on
  teacher feedback

15
Conclusions

• Feedback can only be understood as part of the
  activity system of disciplinary teaching and
  learning
• Too narrow to see feedback only as closing the
  gap between expectations and performance self
  regulation
• Conflicting demands between enculturaltion
  (learning the disicplinary genres) and
  independence and creativity is a big challenge
  for teachers as feedback providers
• Transition from the authoritative word to the
  inner persuasive word needs conscious choice
• The importance of disagreement in joint feedback
  activity
• Important to foster divergent voices, conflict,
  disruption as well as praise and agreement
• Feedback as part of developing academic and
  disciplinary identity