PROVIDING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS

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PROVIDING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS

• Dr Nadia Wager
• School of Human Sciences and Law
• Psychology
• Buckinghamshire New University

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Why the interest in assignment feedback?

• Race (2003)
• Assignment feedback is one of the most important
  factors underpinning effective learning.
• BUT
• Those who are most academically challenged are
  the least likely to accept or utilise standard
  written feedback (Reid, 1995).

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Institutional Benefits

• Feedback has potential to enhance
• student performance
• retention rates
• completion rates

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Benefits for the students

• An additional learning resource
• Removes the feelings of uncertainty - clarifies
  the goals
• Builds confidence
• Provides a sense of direction

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Students Desires

• To improve future assignments
• Generic and specific feedback
• How to suggestions
• Why was it good?
• Maintenance of motivation
• Positive comments too please

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Lecturers Objectives

• Strong similarity between student desires and
  lecturers objectives

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Current PracticeLecturers

• Written assignment top sheets
• Belief that students look only at the percentage
  mark
• Perceived diversity in terms of quantity, quality
  and nature of comments
• Is diversity real or illusory?

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Current Practice Students

• Feedback forms not collected
• 30 admitted to not reading feedback forms
• WHY?
• Strategic learning style
• feedback lacks clarity and direction
• emotional inhibition

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Good practice according to the literature

• Language
• avoid final vocabulary, e.g. good, right or
  poor - does not permit change or repetition
• Use formative rather than summative language,
  e.g. do, dont and how rather than did, didnt
  and why - gives direction for improvement
• Focus of Feedback
• comment on the essay and not the author

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Considered Alternatives

• Verbal Feedback
• Generalised Group Feedback
• Some purely Formative Assessments
• Student Directed Feedback

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Experimenting with verbal feedback

• Appreciated by students
• 4 students stated that feedback tutorial was the
  best thing about the module on evaluation forms
• Expectations of essay and exam were made clear
  and as a result I felt a lot more confident in my
  ability.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of verbal feedback

• Comments more likely to be constructive and
  related to learning objectives
• students remember more of the content
• Opportunity for student voice
• BUT
• Time consuming - more than doubles workload
• Lecturers confidence and social skills

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Developing a more user friendly
alternative Student Directed Feedback

• Emphasises student voice
• 3 sections
• Performance Matrix
• Student Requests
• General communication
• Rationale
• Motivation to read and use
• legible generic indicator of performance

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Piloting Student Directed Feedback

• 33 2nd Year Social Scientists
• 18 returned the forms with assignment
• Only 8 asked for specific feedback
• Examined the relationship between performance
  matrix and requests
• Weaknesses and strengths targeted for comment
• Strengths - Indication of poor judgement of
  ability?

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Students response to my feedback on assignments

• 14 students responded to my request for feedback
  on the feedback I had given them
• 65 felt the mark was fair - mean 64
• 35 felt the mark was unfair - mean 48
• Unfair - mark was on average 5.6 lower than
  their average mark for level 2
• Fair - mark was on average 4 higher than their
  average mark for level 2
• Fair- 33 registered on my level three course
• Unfair - 20 registered on my level three course

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Why unfair?

• My essay was well structured and I made reference
  to all the areas the tutor told me to mention.
  Assistance was very limited. Tutor was meant to
  email me some information and failed to do, even
  though I asked on numerous occasions (47).
• When discussing essay plan with tutor I was told
  it was too broad so I had narrowed it down,
  But in the right direction. I had used a similar
  structure to that of the essay plan I had
  submitted. Also the comments on essay plan is
  different to the I received on the actual essay
  (30)

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Why fair?

• Yes- Pleased that the comments have stuck to the
  areas on which I asked for feedback. Good
  balance between positive and negative comments
• Yes Well, honestly I was hoping for and
  expecting it to be over 50 as I had put a lot of
  work and time into it as it was a retake. Though
  I will come to speak with you again perhaps if I
  do need help again (46b)
• Very fair and Im very pleased with it Thank
  you (70)

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Response to latest verbal feedback

• My new nick name The BH
• Colleagues advice
• My Dilemma

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Introducing the Action Plan

• Verbal feedback and then student completed an
  action plan
• Outlined which aspect they would tackle in a
  future assignment and how they would go about it.
• Need to identify resources
• Skills etc
• Process

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Did it work?

• The following year 60 of the students joined my
  level three group
• After marking the assignments I compared the
  feedback I had written on the two separate
  occasions and also looked across the action plan
  sheets. For almost 50 of the students they were
  no longer receiving negative comments about the
  issues highlighted in the first assignment
  feedback

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Why did it work?

• engaged with the issues
• Took responsibility for improvement
• Sense of hope.
• Verbal feedback one student gained a first
  class award she claims this is because she
  learned to structure her assignments through the
  feedback given and the targeted effort she put in
  to her work.

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Action Plans and Formative AssessmentViews from
the students

• I found the feedback very useful and was feeling
  much more confident while writing the report for
  the second time.
• I usually read my assignment feedback from my
  tutors, but I have learned that I should make a
  note in order to review it when writing the next
  assignment.

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• It was very useful because it points out my
  mistakes and how to bring it up to a better
  level it gave me a chance to achieve more.
• I have taken notice of previous feedback, but
  not I dont think I took as much notice as I
  would have liked to. This assignment made me put
  it into practice which feels good because I am
  more satisfied with the outcome of the final
  report.

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• The feedback helped me do more reading and
  finding lots of research I made sure I read
  through my work before resubmitting it most
  importantly I have learned from this assignment
  and I will make sure that I will use any feedback
  given to me. Thank you.
• Prior to this I would never really looked at the
  feedback if I didnt need it I didnt look.

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Lessons from being an external examiner

• Personalised feedback
• Consistency of evaluative global comments in
  relation to the marks awarded
• Order of comments Big issues should dominate
• Feedback suited to student ability