Enhancing Students’ Assessment Feedback Skills Within Higher Education

Abstract

In higher education (HE) considerable attention is focused on the skills sets students need to meet the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution. The acquisition of high-level assessment feedback skills is fundamental to lifelong learning. HE has made significant investment in developing assessment feedback practices over the last 30 years; however, far less attention has been given to the development of inclusive agentic integrated assessment systems that promote student agency and autonomy in assessment feedback, and from an individual differences perspective. “Inside the Black Box,” a seminal work, opened the potential of assessment as a supportive process in facilitating students in coming to know (understanding the requirements of a task and context, and their own learning) through the development of formative assessment. However, overall, the assessment for learning movement has not changed students’ perceptions, on entering HE, that feedback is something they receive rather than something they can generate and orchestrate despite being predicated on a self-regulatory approach. HE promotes students’ use of self-regulated learning approaches although these are not sufficiently integrated into curriculum systems. In moving forward assessment feedback, it is important to adopt a theoretically integrated approach that draws on self-regulatory frameworks, agentic engagement concepts, understanding of individual differences, and the situated nature of assessment. Current emphases in HE focus on how we engage students as active participants in assessment, in coming to know assessment requirements as part of sustainable practices with students as co-constructors of assessment inputs and outputs. Assessment design should be challenging students to maximize their selective and appropriate use of assessment feedback skills for both immediate and longer-term learning gains. Addressing the professional development of lecturers and students in the acquisition and development of essential fourth industrial age assessment feedback competencies is fundamental to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in HE.

Student Peer Review and Receptiveness to Feedback in Global Classrooms

“…Student responses to open-ended questions also revealed that opportunities to triangulate feedback from their instructor, peers, and self-assessment in a formative process for learning inspired them to improve their course designs before final submission for summative assessment. These findings align with literature supporting the need for peer feedback activities to provide early opportunities for timely feedback from multiple sources 9…”

“…These findings align with literature supporting the need for peer feedback activities to provide early opportunities for timely feedback from multiple sources. 9 The findings from this study lay the groundwork for intentional collaborative course designs and future study of how students perceive and respond to peer feedback in nurse education classrooms that include different cultural or national backgrounds. Instructional interventions should be aimed specifically at developing a growth mindset prepared for self-reflection and performance improvement in response to peer feedback from diverse colleagues.…”

Peer Review

“…Ultimately, exchange of high-quality peer feedback in well-designed peer review activities will support development of self-regulation in learning, deeper student engagement with performance standards, and effective collaboration in high-functioning teams. 9 The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that motivate and demotivate nursing students to provide supportive feedback to peers and identify pedagogical approaches to peer review instruction that support exchange of high-quality peer feedback. Two questions guided this study: (1) How do nursing students describe factors that motivate and demotivate them to provide supportive feedback to peers?…”

“…Therefore, a deeper understanding of the motivating forces for students who transfer knowledge about peer feedback and apply peer-review skills in authentic contexts will help faculty plan educational opportunities that promote a strong sense of value for providing supportive peer feedback among all students. Ultimately, exchange of high-quality peer feedback in well-designed peer review activities will support development of self-regulation in learning, deeper student engagement with performance standards, and effective collaboration in high-functioning teams 9…”

Online collaborative performance in group-based tasks among learners of higher education

“…Group-based tasks require groups of learners to form a 'partnership' to resolve problems, realise outcomes, or create products. By integrating these salient aspectsa standard task or activity, small group learning, cooperative behaviour or positive interdependence, individual responsibility, and accountability (Johnson, 1991;Laal & Ghodsi, 2012;Le et al, 2018;OECD, 2013OECD, , 2017 collaborative learning has proven to generate numerous proximal (increased academic achievement and employability) and distal (increased workplace efficiency) benefits for undergraduates (Evans & Waring, 2020).…”