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Improving Feedback Dialogue in Large First-Year Classrooms

Jennifer Scoles Edinburgh Napier Staff Conference 23rd June 2010

Background
School HE transition

Less opportunity to engage in dialogue with lecturer

Feedback and Dialogue


Feedback provides one of the few opportunities for

one-to-one learning conversations in mass HE But students are dissatisfied... And we know first year students in particular need careful feedback Students preconceived understanding of feedback from high school (Burke, 2009) Students identified some feedback comments as too vague, lacked guidance, or were unrelated to the assessment criteria (Weaver, 2006) So how can we enable better dialogue through feedback?

Aims
What proportion of students took up

the option and requested specific focused feedback? What sort of topics did the students request? Did the nature of the topic change between years? What reasons did students give in accepting or declining the opportunity? What is the effect on the quantity of feedback given by lecturers when participating in Focused Feedback?

Focused Feedback Sample


13 modules participated from School of Life Sciences 8 participating Module Leaders 710 students total enrolled on modules

Focused Feedback Initiative


Would you like f%e$back on ajY specific `rpects of this pi%ce of work? If so please in$icate what you want feedbacj on at the end of youR script.

Method
Coursework handed in - April-May

2010 The count of words given on coursework to each student, along with the grade they received and whether they requested focused feedback or not were statistically analysed 15 interviews with self-selecting students; transcribed verbatim and

Results
Only 6% of students requested focused feedback The most requests came from one particular module - 27% Lecturers gave on average 59 more words of feedback to students who requested focused feedback than to those who did not this is highly significant Highly significant effect of grade, with a negative coefficient that is, the higher the grade the lower the word count of feedback provided

Topics Requested

15 students Results of Interviews interviewed

Barriers to Focused Feedback success


Limited Aspirations I just think Im doing this though and then thats kind of it so I dont really want any more...I dont really care (#8;50) Lake Wobegon Effect its probably ok for other people but I just um no not really ...personally for me I dont think Id really use it but its a good thing for people who you know who have something to actually ask for (#8;42) Ive always believed that the really personal more specific feedback is for the people that really went wrong (#9;146) Modularisation I dont really care Ive written it and thats it I cant do much else you know once you get it back then thats your mark you know I just think theres no point dwelling over it and being like oo I could of done that I could have done that its like no thats it and thats it (#8;58)

Lack of Exposure Ive never really seen anything like that before because I always thought you always just got general feedback (#8;34) I know quite a lot of people who didnt do it but I think its because they didnt read the WebCT stuff so they werent aware of it (#6;6) Power Dynamics and Dialogue I suppose with some I just find that on this course some um lecturers you know sort of cant really be bothered sometimes or seems like they dont have time for you (#12;56) Ive emailed them [lecturers] and asked for help and they havent got back to me at all kind of thing (#12;58) It [feedback] depends on the lecturer I think because some of them are really general and some of them are

Timing
With the specific feedback [in the first year] actually that might have been a little more useful the way I see it if I havent figured out what I need to know about putting in assignments by the end of the second year then its probably too late whereas in the first year yeah

Future Use and Further Research


Improve first-year retention
it didnt appear to be an option it appeared to be part of the assignment

In addition to general feedback on my essay, I would like to receive feedback on the following points: 1)..................................... 2).....................................

Key Findings
Students welcomed the opportunity to

receive Focused Feedback on their coursework However, most of them did not take this opportunity up The reasons are complex and this reveals the need to design and implement simple steps to increase take up At the same time, it is apparent that we need to work on raising aspirations, encouraging reflection from Day One, and investing in feedback, with particular attention to First Year cohorts

References

Bloxham, S. & Campbell, L., (2010) Generating dialogue in assessment feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 3, 291-300. Burke, D. (2009) Strategies for using feedback students bring to higher education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34, 1, 41-50. Fyfe, G., Fyfe, S., Hill, J., Plastow, K., Sanders, K., and Ziman, M. (2006) With age and experience comes an appreciation of the value of feedback for learning, Enhanced Student Learning: 2006 Evaluations and Assessment Conference Refereed Papers, Western Australia. Gibbs, G., (2006) Why assessment is changing, in C. Bryan & K. Clegg (Eds) Innovative Assessment in Higher Education, London: Routledge. Gibbs, G., and Simpson, C. (2004-2005) Conditions under which assessment supports students learning, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1 Hounsell, D., McCune, V., Hounsell, J., and Litjens, J. (2008) The quality of guidance and feedback to students. Higher Education Research & Development, 27, 1, 55-67. Hounsell, D. (2008) The Trouble with Feedback: New Challenges, Emerging Strategies, Accessed from www.tla.ed.ac.uk/interchange/spring2008/hounsell2.pdf 18/02/10 Hounsell, D., Hounsell, J., Litjens, J., and McCune, V. (2005) Enhancing guidance and feedback to students: findings on the impact of evidence-informed initiatives, Paper presented at European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, 11th Biennial Conference, Cyprus 23 -27 August 2005. Sadler, D.R. (1989) Formative assessment: revisiting the territory, Assessment in Education, 5, 1, 77-84. Weaver, M.R. 2006 Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of written response, Assessment and Evaluation in Education, 31, 3, 379-394.

Questions?
For further information, please contact Jennifer Scoles at J.Scoles@napier.ac.uk

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