Rethinking Formative Assessment: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice

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Rethinking Formative Assessment a model and
seven principles of good feedback practice

• Dr David Nicol
• Centre for Academic Practice
• University of Strathclyde
• Debra Macfarlane-Dick
• Careers Service Teaching and
• Learning Service
• University of Glasgow

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Background

• SENLEF project funded by LTSM
• 50 case studies from Scottish HEIs
• Literature review model of formative assessment
  and feedback and 7 principles of good feedback
  practice simple strategies
• Web site
• http//www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre/
• gtprojectsgtassessmentgtSENLEF

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Definitions (1)

• Formative assessment refers to-
• .assessment that is specifically intended to
  provide feedback on performance to improve and
  accelerate learning (Sadler, 1998, p77)

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Definitions (2)

• Who is involved in formative assessment and
  feedback?
• Tutor
• Peer
• External (e.g. placement supervisor)
• Computer generated
• Self

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Why take formative assessment and feedback
seriously?

• Black and Wiliam (1998) 250 studies
• Real classroom situations tutor, peer and
  self-feedback
• Positive benefits on learning and achievement
  across all content areas/ skills and sectors.
• Big impact on schools but what about HE?

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Current thinking about learning assessment

• Teaching/learning paradigm
• Transmission Constructivist.
• 
  student-centred
• Assessment paradigm
• Transmission
• teacher-centred

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Problems with transmission view

• Lifelong learning depends on self-regulation
  (Boud, 2000)
• Feedback messages from teachers must be actively
  interpreted (Higgins et al, 2001)
• Motivational beliefs both regulate and are
  regulated by external feedback (Dweck, 1999)
• Teacher workload issues

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How to conceptualise formative assessment
feedback?

• process that build up the students own skills
  and capacity to self-evaluate and self-correct.
  throughout u/g degree

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Sadlers argument

• For feedback to benefit learning students must
  know
• 1. What good performance is (goals, criteria)
• 2. How current performance relates to good
  performance (compare)
• 3. How to act to close the gap
• No 2 means that students must already possess
  some of the same evaluative skills as the
  teacher (Sadler, 1983).

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Self-regulated learning

• Self-regulated learning is an active constructive
  process whereby learners set goals for their
  learning and monitor, regulate, and control their
  cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and
  constrained by their goals and the contextual
  features of the environment. (Pintrich and Zusho,
  p64)

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Research on self-regulation

• The more self-regulated the student the better
  the learner confident, persistent etc
  (Zimmerman, 2000 Pintrich Zusho, 2002).
• Students can learn to self-regulate through
  making learning explicit and meta-cognitive
  training (Boekaerts et al, 2002)
• Monitoring and self-assessment are key components
  of self-regulation (Schunk and Zimmerman, 1994).
• Formative assessment and self-regulation
  traditionally seen as separate paradigms

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Processes Internal to Student
C
B
Domain Knowledge Strategy Knowledge Motivation
al Beliefs
D
E
F
Student goals
Tactics Strategies
Learning Outcomes
Teacher set task (goals/ criteria)
G
Performance
Paths of internal feedback
A
Self-regulatory processes (cognition, motivation
and behavioural)
H
External Feedback (teacher/peers/employers)
A Model of self-regulation and feedback
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Key message

• Formative assessment and feedback by others can
  only have an impact on learning when it
  influences a students own self-regulatory
  processes (adapted from Boud, 1995).

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The Seven Feedback Principles

• How can assessment and feedback help to build a
  learners capacity to self-regulate?

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Helps clarify what good performance is (goals,
standards, criteria)

• Difficult to use feedback to self-regulate if
  students dont understand goals
• Research
• Mismatches between tutors and students
  conceptions of goals/criteria (Hounsell, 1984
  Norton, 1990 Channock, 2000)
• Strategies
• Exemplars of performance (Orsmond et al, 2002),
  students help construct criteria (Gibbs, 1999)

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Facilitates development of self-assessment in
learning

• Key process in self-regulation is self-assessment
  
• Research
• Training in self-assessment improves exam
  performance (McDonald and Boud, 2003)
• SA integrated with external feedback improves
  performance. (Taras, 2003)
• Strategies
• Peer assessment, supporting reflection etc.

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Delivers high quality information to students
about their learning

• External feedback should help students trouble
  shoot and correct their own performance
• Research
• Shows feedback might be delayed, not relevant,
  overwhelming in quantity, focused on low level
  goals (Sadler, 1983)
• Strategies
• Offering corrective advice in terms of criteria
• Reader response theory (Lunsford, 1997)

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Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around
learning.

• Students dont understand the feedback given by
  tutors ( essay is not sufficiently analytical)
  Channock, 2000 Hyland, 2000
• Research
• Ideal feedback two-way dialogical
  teacher-student (Laurillard, 2003) not enough
  teachers
• Strategies
• Classroom technologies (Nicol Boyle, 2003)
• Peer processes (Gibbs, 1999)

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Encourages positive motivational beliefs and
self-esteem.

• Feedback has positive or negative effects
  depending on type, delivery etc.
• Research
• Feeback as marks versus comments (Butler,
  19871988 Dweck, 2000).
• Strategies
• More low stakes assessments
• Marks only after feedback used

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Provides opportunities to close the gap between
current and desired performance.

• How do you ensure that students actually use the
  feedback information to improve.
• Research
• Little opportunity to resubmit (Boud, 2000)
• Strategies
• Feedback during the task (process)
• Action points and resubmissions.

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Provides information to teachers that can be used
to shape teaching.

• Being sensitive to learner needs
• Research
• Teachers dont necessarily adapt teaching to
  students needs (Ramsden, 1997)
• Strategies
• Angelo Cross (1990) one minute paper
• Classroom Technology (Boyle Nicol, 2003.
• Student-requested feedback

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Processes Internal to Student
C
B
Domain Knowledge Strategy Knowledge Motivation
al Beliefs
D
E
F
Student goals
Tactics Strategies
Learning Outcomes
Teacher set task (goals/ criteria)
G
Performance
Paths of internal feedback
A
Self-regulatory processes (cognition, motivation
and behavioural)
H
External Feedback (teacher/peers/employers)
1. Clarify task goals
2. Encourage dialogue
3. Provide quality feedback
4. Facilitate self-assessment
5. Provides opportunities to close the gap
6. Encourage positive motivational beliefs
7. Use feedback to shape teaching
Supporting and building on student self-regulation
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• New revised paper
• Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2004).
• Title Formative assessment and self-regulated
  learning A model and seven principles of good
  feedback practice.
• To be published in G. Gibbs (ed), Innovating in
  Assessment.
• Available soon from d.j.nicol_at_strath.ac.uk

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The End