Developing sustainable feedback practices

Abstract

Feedback is central to the development of student learning, but within the constraints of modularized learning in higher education it is increasingly difficult to handle effectively. This article makes a case for sustainable feedback as a contribution to the reconceptualization of feedback processes. The data derive from the Student Assessment and Feedback Enhancement project, involving indepth semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of award-winning teachers. The findings focus on those reported practices consistent with a framework for sustainable feedback, and particularly highlight the importance of student self-regulation. The article concludes by setting out some possibilities and challenges for staff and student uptake of sustainable feedback.

Sustainable assessment revisited

“…More recently, the role of feedback in developing students' capacities to learn has been taken up enthusiastically (Hounsell 2007;Nicol 2010;Carless et al 2011;Sadler 2010;Boud and Molloy 2013a). Although the importance of feedback has been the subject of discussion in the literature for many years, the focus in this more recent work is on the contribution of others to learning through assessment and repositioning the notion of feedback not as an act of information-giving to students, but as a coproductive process in which both students and others have key roles to play.…”

The Assessment of Student Learning: Spanish Validation of the Assessment Experience Questionnaire (AEQ)

“…Este término es utilizado por primera vez en educación superior por Carless (2003) quien en diferentes trabajos ha señalado las principales condiciones de esta conceptualización de la evaluación en la universidad (Carless, 2007(Carless, , 2009Carless, Salter, Yang y Lam, 2011): a) las tareas de evaluación son entendidas como tareas de aprendizaje. Esto quiere decir que las tareas de evaluación deben promover experiencias de aprendizaje profundo que se orienten hacia los resultados de aprendizaje esperados; b) la implicación de los estudiantes en la evaluación de tal forma que desarrollen una mejor comprensión de las metas de aprendizaje y que se ocupen más activamente en los estándares y criterios y c) los estudiantes deben recibir retroalimentación o feedback adecuado que podrían utilizar como prealimentación o feedforward en el trabajo futuro.…”

From Inky Pinky Ponky to Improving Student Understanding in Assessment: Exploring the Value of Supplemental Instruction in a Large First-Year Class

“…Assessment should allow students to receive feedback on their learning and also give guidance to further learning (Carless, Salter, Yang & Lam, 2011;Knight, 2002) and here MCQ assessments can be valuable.…”