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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