Rebuilding the broken relationship: the human face of feedback

Tansy JessopSLTI CPD Workshop

1 December 2016@solentlearning

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.

Today’s session

• Why feedback matters• Four central problems• The complex minefield of solutions

Why feedback matters…

Feedback is the single most influential factor in student learning

(Hattie 2009)

Feedback brings significant learning gains. (Black and Wiliam 1998).

Four problems

Problem 1: Mismatch problem

All that effort, but what’s the effect?

Problem 2: The NSS

Wow! Our students love History! Fantastic!

Mmm…there may be a little problem here

Fix it!

Ok, we’ll look especially at polishing up our feedback.

Students seems to find that the least best thing.

Apply spit and polish

Try the feedback sandwich?

I cushion the blow!

The hard truths are nicely disguised!

Me too - nice and soft!

Problem 3: The quality apparatus

Does it get in the way?

Tick-box and technical rational

Lowest common denominator

The language of audit

Paradigm What it looks like

Technical rational Focus on data and tools

Relational Focus on people

Emancipatory Focus on systems and structures

Problem 4: Disconnection

What students say…

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”.

Solutions and strategies

1. Open pack of TESTA student statements.

2. Decide on the central challenge.

3. What solutions might fix this? (you have no extra human resources…)

Your diagnosis and cures

Meet Chris Meredith, Programme Leader, Theology and Religious Studies

I’m baffled. Students love my

feedback but they are a voice

in the wilderness…

Read Chris’s feedback

1) What do you like about it?2) How would you feel receiving it?3) Why do students love his feedback?4) What is its hallmark?5) Why do some feel nervous about it?

Is it a paradigm issue?Scientific Paradigm Naturalistic paradigm

Neutrality Interpretation

External environment Personal and subjective

Marking apparatus – multiple audiences Conversation – single audience in mind

Written and traceable Free, ephemeral, incidental, more gaps

Convergent Divergent

Standardised Varied

Final word Dialogic

Accountability and evidence Social practice

Is it a relationship issue?

What about emotions?

“Feedback is an inherently emotional business” (Molloy et al 2013).

“In some cases the interaction between the learner and the assessment event is so negative that it has an emotional impact that lasts many years and affects career choices, inhibits new learning”

(Boud & Falchikov 2007).

What students say…

• 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.

Overcoming emotional barriers

• Explain the purpose of feedback• Be vulnerable: share your experiences• Encourage “inner dialogue”• Feedback as questioning rather than ‘telling’• Be conversational• Use formative feedback to pose real questions• Remember that assessment is more relational

than technical.

What about the judgement gap?

“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).

It’s about mindsets

The ability of feedback to do good work depends on the world view of the individual learner - ‘fixed’ or ‘entity’ view (Dweck 2000).

Measuring against yourself

From monologue to dialogue

“Mass higher education is squeezing out dialogue with the result that written feedback, which is essentially a monologue, is now having to carry much of the burden of teacher–student interaction”

(Nicol 2010).

Taking action: Reconnecting feedback, developing agency, building relationship

• Conversation: who starts the dialogue?• Developing cycles of reflection across modules• Quick generic feedback: the ‘Sherlock’ factor• Feedback synthesis tasks• Self and peer feedback• Audio and screencast feedback• From feedback as ‘telling’…• … to feedback as asking questions

References

Boud, 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.

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)