Good practice guide - Feedback

Feedback appears in a variety of forms and is an essential component of student learning. A grade, a mark, an annotated rubric, a series of in-text comments, a short video or audio recording which focusses on specific feedback to students, discussions with students about how they are progressing are all forms of feedback. However, for feedback to support students to learn it needs to be presented in ways that they both understand and can guide them. This Good Practice Guide (GPG) discusses the principles of using feedback as guide for learning (Brown and Race, 2012; Kvale, 2007).

Defining feedback

As definitions of feedback have changed, its important to clarify what we mean by feedback so both students and teachers have the same understanding.

According to Henderson et al. (2018) there are numerous ways of defining feedback with no one definition being accepted by all. Boud and Molloy (2013) draw on research examining feedback and suggest feedback has shifted from something students are given to “a process in which students have an active role to play” and which leads to improvements in their work (p. 26). Based on various conceptualisations identified by staff and students, Carless (2015) defines feedback as “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” (p. 192).

Henderson et al. (2018) reflect aspects of these earlier definitions while framing feedback as a cyclical process where students are required to act on the information provided by staff. They suggest “feedback is a process in which learners make sense of information about their performance and use it to enhance the quality of their work or learning strategies” (p. 16). This GPG is based on Henderson’s definition because it encapsulates the following important qualities:

• the notion that feedback can come from peers as well as other staff (if using peers to provide feedback it is essential to ensure they are appropriately trained and guided)
• suggests feedback must be presented in a way that allows for a sense-making process to occur
• students are promoted as active in the process of learning.

Whilst this definition has some problems (see Feedback for learning: Closing the assessment loop) it fits the context and student-centred learning ethos of Flinders University by focussing on learners and their learning needs.

Purposes of feedback

A range of purposes have been linked to feedback; these include:

• justifying grades
• helping students see where they can improve their work (also known as feed-forward)
• indicating both strengths and weaknesses
• providing encouragement
• supporting opportunities to develop skills and knowledge in the area being assessed and therefore useful to students (Dawson et al., 2019; Henderson et al., 2018; Winstone and Nash, 2016)

Providing feedback that allows students to respond

Feedback is useful when it is:

• unambiguous, makes sense to the student, and uses jargon free language. Symbols such as ‘???’ or ‘!!!’ and comments such as ‘well done’, ‘what’, and ‘interesting’ without further explanation regarding exactly what the marker means are not helpful to students (further detail regarding what is and is not helpful is provided below)
• provided in ways that allow students opportunities to demonstrate improvements and therefore linked to future work and/or progress
• timely, so where students can use it for the next assessment it is received in time to be applied to that assessment
• explained in context so that where it is appropriate to do so feedback comments are given at the point the error is made (rather than a comment included in a rubric) and discussed in relation to learning outcomes and the assessment criteria
• signposted so students are aware they are receiving feedback (Dawson et.al., 2019; Hounsell, 2007; McConlogue, 2020; Mulliner and Tucker, 2017).

Mulliner and Tucker (2017) suggest students are not always aware when they are receiving feedback because the way it is constituted in university settings differs from students’ school-based experiences of receiving it. These authors recommend students are “empowered to recognise feedback and trained in order to understand and interpret it” (p. 268). There are a number of ways you might consider helping students learn to recognise feedback. These can include providing examples of feedback and conducting an in-class, small group activity where students are asked to interpret the feedback and determine how the assessment could have been improved based on the feedback. Another could be setting an exercise where students ‘mark’ a short assessment and provide feedback.

Sustainable feedback strategies to support learning

Feedback works best when assessments are well designed and aligned with the topic’s learning outcomes. Students (and markers) should not be overloaded by too much assessment or marking (McConlogue, 2020). However, as discussed above, feedback also needs to make sense to students by indicating understandings of what they have done well and where they could improve and provide opportunities for them to respond. Students therefore need opportunities to act on the feedback they receive. There are several ways of providing these opportunities related to the way assessments are set:

• scaffolding so students develop skills and build on previous learning (and feedback)
• having a draft assessment which attracts a small percentage of grades, with the final assessment including a graded component related to students’ response to feedback
• linking a number of smaller formative assessments (which are graded or ungraded) to a final summative piece
• providing in-class feedback then an opportunity for an improved submission
• planning different types of assessment items across topics and courses to provide students with a range of experience in completing them, opportunities to develop a range of skills and allowing students to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes in ways which play to a variety of strengths. You may need to discuss this strategy with the course coordinator so skills can be embedded across the entire course.

The language and timing of feedback can influence its sustainability. The following table, adapted from Weaver (2006, p. 383), reflects specific comments used to provide students with feedback and the confidence students had in understanding these comments.

Table of student confident in understanding feedback comments adapted from Weaver (2006, p. 383)

Further helpful examples include:

• indicating why something is a strength or requires further work alongside recommendations or guidance on how to address concerns can be helpful, you may need to consider the different feedback requirements related to different assessment types (for example written assessments may lend themselves to comments while a presentation may be better suited to a discussion)
• having explicit rubrics which clearly describe expectations and performance

Further less helpful examples include:

• using codes such as a tick in the margin, question marks, exclamation marks or terms such as “linkage”, “confused” or “explain” without further articulation of what the marker means (through the use of a legend or other explanatory text) may not be useful to students (especially first year students)
• not expending energy on providing extensive feedback on final assignments that will not lead to further learning

As discussed earlier, it is important to guide students to develop assessment literacy by providing them with:

• opportunities to practice assessing the work of others (anonymised examples of assessments submitted in previous years) and/or engaging in self-assessment
• assessed exemplars which are discussed during face to face sessions
• rubrics to support understanding of requirements and how assessment works

In summary, for feedback to be sustainable, assessments need to be well designed and scaffolded and the feedback needs to be useful to students. It is important to support students to learn how to understand the purpose of feedback and guide them with well explained assessment instructions and marking rubrics. Contact your Academic Developer for further ideas and support in providing feedback and explore the Tip sheet – Providing constructive feedback in FLO.