Developing a learning-centred framework for feedback literacy

Abstract

There is an increasing focus on notions of feedback in which students are positioned as active players rather than recipients of information. These discussions have been either conceptual in character or have an empirical focus on designs to support learners in feedback processes. There has been little emphasis on learners' perspectives on, and experiences of, the role they play in such processes and what they need in order to benefit from feedback. This study therefore seeks to identify the characteristics of feedback literacythat is, how students understand and can utilise feedback for their own learningby analysing students' views of feedback processes drawing on a substantial data set derived from a study of feedback in two large universities. The analysis revealed seven groupings of learner feedback literacy, including understanding feedback purposes and roles, seeking information, making judgements about work quality, working with emotions, and processing and using information for the benefit of their future work (31 categories in total). By identifying these realised components of feedback literacy, in the form of illustrative examples, the emergent set of competencies can enable investigations of the development of feedback literacy and improve feedback designs in courses through alignment to these standards.

Discipline-specific feedback literacies: A framework for curriculum design

“…The importance of feedback literacy is underscored by significant recent interest. Conceptually oriented work has focused on identifying characteristics of teacher feedback literacy (Carless and Winstone, 2020), and learning activities to support the development of student feedback literacy (Malecka et al 2020), Drawing upon a large-scale survey and seven case studies of effective feedback practice, Molloy et al (2019), developed a learning-centred framework for feedback literacy providing empirical support for many of the components of feedback literacy in Carless and Boud's (2018) conceptual model. This framework also highlighted the importance of students actively seeking feedback information, recognising their central role in reciprocal feedback processes and preparing themselves for lifelong learning.…”

“…Feedback literacy has both short-term and long-term applications. In the short-term, it enables students to make better use of existing feedback opportunities within university curricula and assessment regimes (Molloy et al 2019) Over the longer-term, it enables students to develop their evaluative judgement (Tai et al 2018) and engage more effectively in work environments (Noble et al 2020). Yet, despite growing appreciation of the importance of feedback literacy, thus far the concept has mainly been considered as a generic set of capacities.…”

“…These are not just academic skills but lifelong learning skills that support development in professional, personal, recreational and educational contexts. Such capacities are represented by the concept of 'feedback literacy' (Carless and Boud 2018;Molloy et al 2019). Despite growing interest in feedback literacy, thus far the concept has been considered mainly as a generic set of skills and capacities.…”

The development of secondary students’ feedback literacy: Peer assessment as an intervention

“…The work of Carless and Boud (2018) has induced further research. Molloy et al (2019) explored higher education students' feedback literacy from the students' perspective. Their results present seven groups containing altogether 31 categories of knowledge, capabilities, and skills of feedback literacy.…”

“…Carless and Boud (2018) introduced a framework of feedback literacy describing the competences necessary to participate in feedback processes; it has generated considerable interest and encouraged further research. Studies have investigated students of higher education (Han & Xu, 2019a, 2019bHey-Cunningham et al, 2020;Molloy et al, 2019) and academics (Gravett et al, 2020), but so far no study has investigated the feedback literacy of a much larger group: secondary students. Exploring the feedback literacy of secondary school students is the first goal of this study.…”