Improving feedback and developing student feedback literacy

Feedback can be one of the most challenging parts of not just education, but of life in general. Giving, receiving, understanding and coping with comments about our work is hard. The workload of feedback can also be a significant challenge for staff, who often report that students do not even read assignment feedback comments, let alone action them. The struggles with feedback are only magnified in large classes. This session focuses on developing the capabilities required for effective feedback, building on Boud and Dawson’s teacher feedback literacy competency framework, which was developed from two large Australian government funded learning and teaching projects. It explores what can be done to improve student feedback literacy: their capability to seek out feedback, make sense of it, use it, and work with their emotions through the process.

1. Improving feedback and developing student feedback literacy Professor Phillip (Phill) Dawson Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) Deakin University @phillipdawson

2. Three things to take from this presentation @ phillipdawson

3. What are the problems with feedback?

4. But how??? Feedback should be more work for the recipient than it is for the donor (William, 2011) William, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment : Solution Tree Press.

5. There has been a shift in what we think of as effective feedback

6. 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.” Henderson, M., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P., Molloy, E., & Mahoney, P. (2019). Conditions that enable effective feedback. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(7), 1401-1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1657807

7. From good feedback to effective feedback https://xkcd.com/703/

8. This is not feedback “I left feedback on their final essays, which they never collected”

9. From old paradigm to new paradigm feedback

10. Three things to take from this presentation @ phillipdawson

11. What should students do when they receive feedback information?

12. What do you do when you receive feedback information?

13. How did you learn to act in this way?

14. Feedback literacy: “the understandings, capacities and dispositions needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies.” Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354

15. Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2019). The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354

16. Measuring feedback literacy feedbackliteracy.org

17. Three things to take from this presentation @ phillipdawson

18. Improving feedback comments won’t necessarily improve student feedback literacy

19. What feedback literate teachers do

20. Nineteen competencies across three levels

21. Focus on these meso design competencies today

22. What to think about when designing feedback

23. Three concrete practices from my teaching that are supported by research

24. 1. Build feedback seeking in

25. 2. Student self-assessment is mandatory

26. 3. Spend class time on feedback

27. Suggestions Focus more on effective feedback and less on good feedback Spend more effort on feedback design and less on feedback comments Focus on what students do in feedback – require them to make requests and generate feedback Share what we do in our feedback practices See resources on feedbackforlearning.org and feedbackliteracy.org

28. Feedback is incredibly important for learning, and it’s not just the information you get, but how you use it that could make a difference. Be part of our research project : take the Feedback Literacy Behaviour Scale to find out your strengths and weaknesses regarding how you engage with feedback. We are looking for people to complete our survey who are aged 18+ years and study (or have studied) at a higher education institution (e.g., university, TAFE or college) in English. This will only take you about 10-15 minutes . https://www.feedbackliteracy.org/take-the-flbs This study has Deakin University Ethics Approval (ID: HAE-23-065)