Implementing best practice guidelines to promote assessment for learning: challenges

and rewards

Dr David Walker & Dr Rola Ajjawi

Synthesis of the literature on best

practice: principles of assessment andfeedback

Drivers

Activity

Jot down your definition of feedback and then discuss with peer (5 mins)

Be prepared to feedback to the group

What is Feedback?

“Feedback should help the student understand more about the learning goal, and more ways to bridge the gap between their current status and the desired status.”1

Purpose of Feedback?

Feedback should develop the students’ capacity to make evaluative judgements about their own and others work1,8

Feedback should serve the function of progressively enabling students to better monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning, independently of the teacher7

Feedback encapsulates:

1. Where am I going?

2. How am I going?

3. Where to next? (or how do I get there?)2

Influence of feedback

• Affective processes of increased effort and motivation and/or cognitive processes of restructuring knowledge

• Learners (particular those studying at a distance) require reassurance that they are heading in the right direction

• Constructive feedback often results in improved performance2-3

Relationship to Criteria

• Clarity of goals and standards important to avoid a mismatch between staff & student expectations

• Support student self-evaluation

• Improve the likelihood of reliability

• For markers criteria can be used as a framework for providing student feedback

We have a problem…

http://www.motor-trade-insider.com/index.php/2010/11/houston-we-have-a-problem/

Students – Common Concerns

• Feedback is too late to influence learning

• Feedback is vague or cryptic e.g. “more”

• Feedback provides no explanation for action e.g. “good”

• Feedback is “one off” – no chance to try again based on assessment sequencing

Tutors think they provide more detailed feedback than students perceive

Tutors view their feedback to be more useful compared to what students think

A Critque of Monologic Feedback4-10

• Lack of learner engagement with feedback

• Lack of understanding of feedback

• Transmitted feedback creates dependency on teacher

• Not utilising self/peer feedback

• Lack of a shared context for assessment for teacher and learner

• High teacher effort— low efficiency

• Reduced staff satisfaction as evidence of feedforward not seen

Influence of feedback

• Feedback can help to develop learner self-regulation4,5

• Professional socialisation into profession11

The Feedback Recipient

• Interplay between fear, confidence and reasoning in receptivity to feedback 12

• Tendency for ‘deflection’ when there is a discrepancy between learners’ internal perceptions (self-evaluation) and the external teacher’s perceptions (feedback) 10

• Learner re-interprets the external feedback to make it conform with their own hope, intention or interpretation of their performance13

• Perceived credibility of feedback giver essential14-16

Reconceptualising Feedback

“Feedback should be conceptualised as a dialogical and contingent two-way process that involves coordinated teacher–student and peer-to-peer interaction as well as active learner engagement.”5

Teacher-focussed Strategies

• Faster turnaround of feedback• Improve quality of the feedback• Explicate timings• Generate assessment rubrics• Look at sequencing of

assignments• Faculty development and

benchmarking

Learner-focussed Strategies• Educate and empower students to

take an active role in feedback

• Engage students in generating assessment criteria and discussing standards

• Create opportunities for students to process and use feedback Engage students in ways to develop evaluative judgements (self/peer-review)

• Establish a dialogue

http://www.strath.ac.uk/media/other/learningteaching/student_leaflet.pdf

Importance of Feedback

• If students are to understand their level of performance and how to improve they need feedback

• Feedback does not need to be the responsibility of teachers7

• Feedback should not be viewed as a transmission process but a dialogue5,10

• Feedback should feedforward and assessment strategy should allow this

Feedback is … a Dialogue

http://www.flickr.com/photos/khalidalbaih/5653817859

Contact Details

Dr David WalkerUniversity of Dundee

Email: d.j.walker@dundee.ac.uk Twitter: @drdjwalker

Dr Rola AjjawiCentre for Medical Education

University of DundeeEmail: r.ajjawi@dundee.ac.uk

Twitter: @r_ajjawi

References1. Sadler, D. R. (2010) Beyond feedback: developing student capability in complex appraisal.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35:5, 535-550.2. Hattie, J. & TIimperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77,

81-112.3. Veloski, J., Boex, J. R., Grasberger, M. J., Evans, A., & Wolfson, D. B. (2006). Systematic review of

the literature on assessment, feedback and physicians’ clinical performance*: BEME Guide No. 7. Medical Teacher, 28(2), 117-128.

4. Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 219-233.

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

6. Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18(2), 119-144.

7. Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane 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.

8. Boud, D., & Associates. (2010). Assessment 2010: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

9. Higgins, R., Hartley, P., & Skelton, A. (2002). The Conscientious Consumer: Reconsidering the role of assessment feedback in student learning. Studies in Higher Education, 27(1), 53-64.

References continued10. Boud, D., & Molloy, E. (2012). Rethinking models of feedback for learning: the challenge of design.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-15.11. Molloy, E. K. (2009). Time to Pause: Feedback in Clinical Education. In C. Delaney & E. K. Molloy

(Eds.), Clinical Education in the Health Professions. Sydney: Elsevier.12. Eva, K., Armson, H., Holmboe, E., Lockyer, J., Loney, E., Mann, K., et al. (2011). Factors influencing

responsiveness to feedback: on the interplay between fear, confidence, and reasoning processes. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 1-12.

13. Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M., & Lam, J. (2010). Developing sustainable feedback practices. Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.

14. Watling, C., & Lingard, L. (2010). Toward meaningful evaluation of medical trainees: the influence of participants’ perceptions of the process. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 1-12.

15. Watling, C., Driessen, E., van der Vleuten, C. P. M., & Lingard, L. (2012). Learning from clinical work: the roles of learning cues and credibility judgements. Medical Education, 46(2), 192-200.

16. Watling, C., Driessen, E., van der Vleuten, C. P. M., Vanstone, M., & Lingard, L. (2012). Understanding responses to feedback: the potential and limitations of regulatory focus theory. Medical Education, 46(6), 593-603.

17. Nicol, D. (2012). Assessment and feedback - in the hands of the student [Online]. JISC. Available: http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/50118521/Assessment%20and%20feedback%20-%20in%20the%20hands%20of%20the%20student [Accessed 01/02/12].