What do students think of our feedback

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What do students think of our feedback?

• Purpose of todays session
• Brief presentation on some research that has been
  done here at Hope
• Points for discussion
• Potential for further projects?

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Research

• HEA research project led by Michelle ODoherty
  and Chris Beaumont
• FDTL 4 research project led by Lin Norton (Hope),
  Kathy Harrington James Elander (London Met)
  Pete Reddy (Aston)

http//www.writenow.ac.uk
Assessment PLUS
A
http//www.assessmentplus.net
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ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING?
HEA research project

• I know I was spoonfed in college but Hope,
  dont take away the spoon, not if you expect to
  us to fill it ourselves

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Mind the Gap Expectations and Experience
HEA research project

• Feedback perceived asre-assurance you are on
  the right track.
• Consequently they feel lost if left without some
  formative feedback. This affects confidence.
• The idea of completing an assignment without any
  formative feedback seems alien, you could go
  ahead and do the whole thing and you are wrong,
  whats the point?

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Expectations and experience (2)
HEA research project

• Sophisticated perception of the purpose of
  feedback how to improve your work, how else
  do you learn?
• The expectation is then that feedback comments
  will give specific examples of exactly how to do
  this. Students are used to learning from
  frequent, formative feedback.
• The difference in assignments A Levels are
  still examination focused means that students are
  unsure how to feed-forward to a range of
  different formats
• stronger encouragement on how to transfer skills
  is required, in your next assignment you could.
  

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Expectations and experience (3)
HEA research project

• The change from 2 years of modularised exam based
  preparation to a Hope first year of coursework
  alone cannot be underestimated.
• In schools, coursework is broken down over an
  extended period and receives the most feedback
  drafts and re-drafting
• at Hope, coursework is the cornerstone of the
  independent learning we expect.

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Expectations and experience (4)
HEA research project

• Students are in a different world and have strong
  need to know what you are looking for. They
  perceive feedback comments can be too vague to be
  useful and prefer their assignment to be written
  on rather than, or in addition to, a feedback
  sheet, then I know exactly where I have gone
  wrong.
• In particular students value the use of exemplar
  material this often clarifies the meaning of
  new terms evaluation, critique analysis and
  so on they are learning a new language.

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Expectations and experience (5)
HEA research project

• Personal feedback is privileged above all else
  students value opportunities to discuss and ask
  questions about their feedback and feel the need
  for class time to do this.
• Written feedback alone is not seen as quality
  feedback but is better than no feedback at
  all.
• The ideal is perceived to be formative feedback,
  both written and verbal.

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Lecturers views on feedback
Assessment Plus project

• Commonly held perception that students are not
  interested in feedback
• They often dont even collect their essayssome
  of them are more ready to argue about their mark
  than they are to collect their essay(4/A)
• Wide variability in how lecturers used assessment
  criteria in marking and feedback

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Students views of feedback
Assessment Plus project

• Some students were very shaky in their
  understanding of assessment criteria
• Conscientious attention to lecturer feedback
• Difficulties in interpreting lecturers comments
• theyll say, sort of aim you in a direction,
  and youll do that, and then youre still left
  with a grade that you think well, have you
  actually, have you then followed the assessment
  criteria, and it is a bit confusing. From the
  comments you dont really know if theyve used
  the assessment criteria
• Variability between lecturers when marking

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Summary of research findings
Assessment Plus project

• Our findings showed that staff and students have
  different perceptions of assessment
• Staff sometimes believe students dont bother
• Students are conscientious consumers of
  feedback but find it hard to cope with
• variability between lecturers
• vaguely worded feedback

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What the literature says

• Ding (1998) found that students prefer feedback
  to concentrate on improving generic skills that
  can be transferred across modules and
  assignments.
• Often students will only be required to
  undertake one piece of assessed coursework for a
  module and will not receive feedback on the
  assignment until they have moved on to a
  different unit.
• Feedback is therefore only useful if they can
  relate it to their next assignments.

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Is our feedback confusing?

• Connors and Lunsford (1993) have commented on the
  variability of feedback
• Whilst some tutors opt for personal and
  empathetic feedback This is a good essay. I
  would like to have seen a bit more discussion of
  the gestalt ideas and perhaps discussion of
  ambiguous figures (Assessment Plus Essay Bank)
• others adopt a more prescriptive tone confusing,
  poorly worded (Assessment Plus Essay Bank).
• Higgins et al., (2002) reported that students can
  struggle with both styles of feedback if the
  comments are too general or do not explain why a
  particular aspect of an assignment was good or
  bad.

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Some thoughts for discussion

• What can we do to improve our feedback ?
• What can we do to better manage students
  expectations?
• What obstacles are in the way of making
  improvements?
• How can these obstacles be overcome?
• How will we monitor/evaluate whether there has
  been any improvement?
• What PAR projects should we consider to research
  and improve on current practice?

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Acknowledgments

• Much of the content for this presentation was
  provided by Michelle ODoherty, Writing
  Specialist for the Write Now Centre for
  Excellence in Teaching and Learning.