Push back Sisyphus! Connecting feedback to learning

Professor Tansy JessopTESTA Workshop

University College Dublin10 February 2017

Today’s session

• Your experience of feedback• Principles of effective feedback• Why it doesn’t work• Ways to make it work• The challenge of ambiguity

Think back and make jottings on….

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

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

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

Principles of feedback

1. Feedback needs to be prompt, detailed, specific, developmental (Gibbs 2004)

2. Dialogue not monologue (Nicol 2010)

3. Dangling the feedback data better? (Sadler 1989)

4. Sustainable feedback (Boud 2000; Carless 2011)

Feedback: what’s the point?

Sisyphus rolls a boulder up a hill“an eternity of endless labour, useless effort and frustration”

Homer, 8th Century BC

21st century equivalent

“You end up assessing for assessment’s sake rather than thinking about what the assessment is for…”

Programme Leader University of Winchester (2008)

I read through it when I get it and that’s about it really. They all go in a little folder and I don’t look at them again most of the time. It’s mostly the mark really that you

look for (TESTA focus group data)

I’m personally really bad at reading feedback. I’m the kind of person, and I

hate to admit it, but I’ll look at the mark and then be like ‘well stuff it, I can’t do

anything about it’ (TESTA FG data)

When I first started, I cared more and then I thought ‘Are they

actually taking any of this in? Are they making a note of my

progress or anything?’ TESTA FG data.

Why it doesn’t work

1) Modular structures impede feedback

2) Lecturers evaluate too much; students too little

3) We don’t see feedback as relational with emotional sides

4) It’s not growth oriented

5) Grades and competition matter more than progress

1. Modular impediments

The feedback is generally focused on the module.

It’s difficult because your assignments are so detached from the next one you do for that subject. They don’t relate to each other.

Because it’s at the end of the module, it doesn’t feed into our future work.

I read it and think “Well, that’s fine but I’ve already handed it in now and got the mark. It’s too late”.

2. Lecturers evaluate too much, students too little

I: Do you have any peer feedback?R2: No. Because they'll just copy it.

1: Do you have any feedback from peers? S: We just have questions at the end.S: But then another thing they said this year is that we don't have to watch each other's presentations so we're just presenting in front of the teacher. We don't mind presenting to each other because it feels like it makes it worth doing.

3. Emotional impact

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.

Students value honest feedback…

They just pacify really. I went for help and they just told me what I wanted to hear, not what I needed to know.

Its very positive like nobody ever says ‘no you’ve done that completely wrong’. It's always 'You've done that very well‘. Well why have a got a low grade then? It doesn’t really help you from there.

…which they may struggle to take on board

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).

Pause

1. What impact do you think emotions has on students interaction with feedback? Is it an issue?

2. How honest is your feedback? Does anything temper honesty?

4. Feedback is not growth-oriented

It told you some of the problems but it doesn’t tell you how you can manage to fix that. It was, “Well, this is the problem.” I was like, “How do I fix it?” They said, “Well, some people are just not good at writing.”

(TESTA Focus group data)

Here are some ways in which you can

improve…

Some people are just not good at

writing…

5. Grades and competition matter more than progress

1. Connecting modular feedback

• Sequencing tasks and varieties across modules• Developing coversheets in cycles of reflection

across modules• Diagnostic feedback on one task addressed in

next one• Giving feedback to feedforward to next task• Quick exam feedback, or two-stage examshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFwQzlVFy0

2. Connecting students to feedback

• Students asking for feedback on areas of an assessment at hand in

• Students peer reviewing posters, presentations, lab reports etc

• Self assessment• Students using rubrics to mark• Students reflecting on ‘ways to improve’ at next

submission• Students doing synthesis tasks with feedback

3. Fostering student use of critical feedback

• Give students opportunities to review and critique work in peer processes

• Make time to explore the purpose of feedback• Share your experiences• Use questioning rather than ‘telling’• Audio and screencast feedback• Low stakes formative feedback

The challenge of ambiguity

Perry’s Module Evaluations…

“This course has changed my whole outlook on life. Superbly taught!”

“This course is falsely taught and dishonest. You have cheated me of my tuition”

This has been the most sloppy, disorganised course I’ve ever taken.

Of course I’ve made some improvement, but this has been due entirely to my own efforts!”

Intellectual Development of Students

Third Year

Commitment Teacher as endorser

Second YearRelativism Teacher as enigma

First YearDualism Teacher as expert

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.Perry, William 1981. Cognitive and Ethical Growth: The Making of Meaning. In Chickering, A. (1981) The Modern American College. San Francisco. Jossey Bass.

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)