relieving feedback frustrations

Designing effective feedback processes

David CarlessUniversity of Hong Kong

May 6, 2016Hong Kong Institute of Education

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Overview

1. Challenges and frustrations

2. Defining feedback

3. Prospects for dialogic feedback

4. Examples, issues & implications

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Frustrations

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Staff frustrations• Heavy marking load• Students don’t collect feedback • Students mainly interested in the grade• Students lack motivation to act …..

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Marking & Grading End of semester grading involves:-Awarding a grade-Justifying the grade-Providing specific comments-Providing generic comments-Reciprocity

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Student frustrationsFeedback often seems like a perversely belated revelation of things that should have been made clear earlier (Crook, Gross & Dymott, 2006)

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Differing perceptions Study 1. Questionnaire data from 460 staff & 1740 students + qualitative data from BEd Students

Teachers thought their feedback was more useful than students did (Carless, 2006)

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DEFINING & SITUATING FEEDBACK

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What does ‘feedback’ mean?

As dialogues around student work

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As comments …Providing information about performance

AND/OR

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Comments DialogueFeedback as monologic information transfer 

Feedback as dialogic interaction 

Defining feedback

“A dialogic process in which learners make sense of information from varied sources and use it to enhance the quality of their work or learning strategies”.

Carless (2015, p.192) building on Boud & Molloy (2013)

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Closing feedback loops

It’s only feedback if students take some action

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Bigger pictureFeedback as assessment design issue

Feedback as a pedagogical issue

Feedback as a relational issue

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Productive assessment task design

Understanding quality in the discipline

Student engagement with feedback

Learning-oriented assessment framework

Merry, Price, Carless, & Taras (2013)

Discussion

Share with a partner or small group, one or two potentially promising feedback strategies

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FEEDBACK AS DIALOGUE

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Dialogic feedback principles

• Process rather than product

• Prompting learner action

• Peers as active source of feedback

• Inner dialogue, internal feedback

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Key aim of feedback

To enhance student ability to self-monitor their work in progress

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Dialogic feedback in practice1. Teacher-facilitated dialogic feedback

2. Technology-enabled dialogic feedback

3. Peer feedback and internal feedback (Nicol, 2010)

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Assessment dialoguesDiscussing assessment processes to help students understand rules of the game (Carless, 2006)

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Guidance & feedback

Integrated cycles of guidance & feedback within learning processes (Hounsell et al. 2008)

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Model of guidance & feedback

Preparatory Guidance

-Clarifying task-Engaging with criteria-Analyzing exemplars

Student self-monitoring

-Seeking & using feedback-Peer review-Self-evaluation

Ongoing clarification

-Opportunities for practice-Apply criteria-Review work in progress

Cumulative task designs• Task 1 feedback interlinked task 2

• Position students as active feedback seekers & users

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Feedback designsActivities in which students make judgments

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Exemplars & feedback Analysis of exemplars can support students in decoding teacher feedback (To & Carless, 2015)

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Exemplars: queries?Questions or comments on using exemplars of student work to illustrate aspects of quality

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TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED STRATEGIES

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Learning Management Systems

Storing and accessing feedback comments

Prompting students to act on prior feedback (before receiving more feedback)

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Online discussion forumBusiness case: graded online participation

“Having a grading allocation … gives some life to it” (Carless, 2015, p. 124)

Sense of cumulativeness vs stating own opinion

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Use of FacebookMore attractive to students than Moodle (Deng & Tavares, 2013)History students uploaded drafts & received peer feedback (Carless, 2015)

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Audio (& video) feedback

Providing recorded verbal commentary (instead of written feedback?)

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Audio feedback: pros

• Viewed positively by students (Lunt & Curran, 2010)

• Shows concern; permits nuanced feedback or detail (Savin-Baden, 2010)

• May resemble a dialogue (Nicol, 2010)

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Audio feedback: cons

• ‘Moderate’ impact on student learning (Gould & Day, 2013)

• Difficult in failure cases• Workload? (Hennessy & Forester, 2014)

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STUDENT ROLE IN SEEKING, GENERATING & USING FEEDBACK

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Peer involvement The University of Hong Kong

Peer assessment with grades often resisted

Peer feedback or peer review (without grades) generally more attractive

Sharing: peer feedback To what extent are your students willing and active in engaging in peer feedback?

Any challenges or good strategies to share …

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Peer feedback Potentially more plentiful …

But peers often viewed as lacking expertise

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Composing peer feedback Providing feedback more cognitively engaging than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)

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Sustainable feedback

Enhancing student role to generate & use feedback (Carless et al., 2011; Hounsell, 2007)

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SELECTED FEEDBACK CHALLENGES

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Confusion over purposesStudent & staff confusions around feedback & what it can achieve (Price et al., 2010)

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Failing to connectDifficulties for lower achievers to make sense of feedback (Orsmond & Merry, 2013)

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Emotional reactionsHonest but constructive feedback

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Care and trust Feedback is a social and relational act: Care (Sutton, 2012)Trust (Carless, 2009, 2013)

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Implications The University of Hong Kong

Feedback literacy

Teachers need to help students understand feedback & how they can use it

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Good feedback practiceIntegration of feedback & task design;

Timely dialogues: online & peer feedback;

Development of student self-regulation for sustainable feedback

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Shifts in priorities The University of Hong Kong

Increase Decrease

In-class guidance within course time

Unidirectional comments after course completion 

Written feedback comments on first assessment task of module

Written feedback comments on final task of module  

Feedback for first year students  

Feedback for final year students

THANK YOU

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Ongoing research 1. Dialogic use of exemplars

2. Longitudinal study of how students process & use feedback

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