The perils and the promise of personalising feedback

Dr Tansy JessopSt Mary’s Twickenham

25 February 2016

Where are you on the continuum?

Strongly agree Strongly disagree

Think back to and make jottings on…

• ….feedback you received which had a damaging effect.

• ….feedback which spurred you on to great heights.

• Two minute chat with a partner, sharing some of your experience.

My interest in the vexed problem of feedback…

• The consequences of ‘policing’ mechanisms • What personalised feedback looks like• Effective ways to give personal feedback• Overcoming emotional barriers to receiving

feedback • Strategies for giving personal, conversational

feedback

Feedback may feel like this…

An eternity of endless labour, useless effort and frustration…Homer 8th Century BC

Or its 21st century equivalent

Yet it really matters…

“Feedback is the single most influential factor in student learning” (Hattie 2009).

But is hard to get right:

“Not all feedback is good feedback” (Boud and Molloy 2013)

Mechanism 1: The NSS

Wow! Our students love History! Fantastic!

Mmm…there may be a little problem here

Fix it!

Ok, we’ll look especially at polishing up our feedback.

Students seems to find that the least best thing.

Apply spit and polish

Try the feedback sandwich?

I cushion the blow!

The hard truths are nicely disguised!

Me too - nice and soft!

• Standardisation• Consistency• Quality• Ensuring a good student experience• Tick box and technical• Dehumanising• Anti-educational?

Mechanism 2: The quality apparatus

Meet Chris Meredith, Programme Leader, Theology and Religious Studies

I’m baffled. Students love my feedback but they are a voice in the

wilderness…

Read Chris’s feedback

1) What do you like about it?2) How would you feel receiving it?3) Why do students love his feedback?4) What is its hallmark?5) Why do some feel nervous about it?

Is it a paradigm issue?Scientific Paradigm Naturalistic paradigm

Neutrality Interpretation

External environment One to one environment

Marking apparatus – multiple audiences Conversation – single audience in mind

Written and traceable Free, ephemeral, incidental, more gaps

Convergent Divergent

Standardised Varied

Final word Dialogic

Accountability and evidence Social practice

Is it a relationship issue?

Winchester A&F research (2008)

TESTA evidence

What students say…

1. Open pack of TESTA student statements.

2. Decide on the central challenge.

3. What solutions might fix this? (you have no extra human resources…)

My final ‘loose end’ questions

1. How does emotion influence students’ capacity to use feedback?

2. How can we overcome emotional barriers to students using feedback?

3. What is the judgement gap, and what strategies are there to help students recognise it?

4. Why is dialogue (rather than ‘feedback as telling’) central to effective feedback?

1. The influence of emotion

“Feedback is an inherently emotional business” (Molloy et al 2013).

“In some cases the interaction between the learner and the assessment event is so negative that it has an emotional impact that lasts many years and affects career choices, inhibits new learning” (Boud and Falchikov 2007).

Processing feedback isn’t that effective in a deck chair…

…nor in a tight corner in the forest with a brown bear

What students say…• You’re so nervous that you’re going to get it back with all

these red marks saying that it’s wrong.

• It’s always the negatives you remember, as we’ve all said. It’s always the negatives. We hardly ever pick out the really positive points because once you’ve seen the negative, the negatives can outweigh the positives.

• I feel physically sick handing in an assignment. I can’t sleep for days before because I panic that it’s not right and it’s so pathetic.

2. Overcoming the barriers

1. Talk about growth from critical feedback2. Share your experiences3. Feedback as questioning rather than ‘telling’4. Be conversational5. Use formative feedback6. Develop students capacity to give feedback to each

other7. Remember that assessment is more relational than

technical.

3. Bridging the judgement gap

People have a particular view of themselves and the way they operate… incoming data that challenges this internal view is naturally confronting (Molloy et al 2013).

Strategy 1

The ability of feedback to do good work depends on the world view of the individual learner - ‘fixed’ or ‘entity’ view (Dweck 2000).

Strategy 2

4. From monologue to dialogue

“Mass higher education is squeezing out dialogue with the result that written feedback, which is essentially a monologue, is now having to carry much of the burden of teacher–student interaction” (Nicol 2010).

Feedback dialogue ideas

• Inviting reflection quickly (generic)• Students identify what they want feedback on• Teachers respond• Ways to improve iterative ‘cover sheets’• Peer questions and feedback• Technology – blogging, audio, screencast.

Theory into principles into action

http://padlet.com/tansy_jessop/kwdkdx6tg7yk

ReferencesBoud, D. and Molloy, E (2013) Rethinking models of feedback for learning: the challenge of design Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38:6, 698-712 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2012.691462Boud, D. and Molloy, E (2013) Feedback in Higher and Professional Education. Understanding it and doing it better. Abingdon. Routledge.Boud, D. and Falchikov, N. (2007) Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education. Abingdon. Routledge.Dweck, C.

Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. 1(1): 3-31.

Hattie, J. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77(1) 81-112.

Holt, M (1981) Educating Educators. Hodder and Stoughton, in Hussey, T and Smith, T (2002) The trouble with Learning Outcomes, Active Learning in Higher Education Vol 3(3): 220–233

Hughes, G. (2014) Ipsative Assessment. Basingstoke. Palgrave MacMillan.

Jessop, T. and Maleckar, B. (2014). The Influence of disciplinary assessment patterns on student learning: a comparative study. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2014.943170Studies in Higher Education. Published Online 27 August 2014

Jessop, T. , El Hakim, Y. and Gibbs, G. (2014) The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a large-scale study of students’ learning in response to different assessment patterns. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(1) 73-88.

Nicol, D. (2010) From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education.Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35: 5, 501 – 517.

Nicol, D. and McFarlane-Dick D. (2006) Formative Assessment and Self-Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice. Studies in Higher Education. 31(2): 199-218.

Sadler, D.R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.

Instructional Science, 18, 119-144.

TESTA (2009-16) Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment (www.testa.ac.uk)