Feedback effectiveness in professional learning contexts

Abstract

Assessment organisations that operate at a national level in the UK employ hierarchic assessor monitoring arrangements, where the most senior assessors (known as team leaders) feedback to assessors in their teams on their marking performance. According to a sociocultural viewpoint, this feedback possesses learning potential as it allows assessors insights into the perspectives of their team leader. There is relatively little research on feedback effectiveness in professional assessment contexts. To gain insights into feedback effectiveness a literature review was carried out that incorporated 183 feedback research studies. The aim of the review was to identify the characteristics of feedback messages that are associated with effectiveness in contexts where access to knowledge is hierarchically and remotely distributed. For the purposes of this study, feedback is considered to be effective where it potentiates professional learning through supporting the alignment of participants' thinking and practice. The review outcomes are synthesised into a framework that identifies a number of core and sociocultural factors associated with feedback effectiveness. The review outcomes have implications for those with a role in delivering feedback, particularly where feedback is used to influence performances where there is asymmetry in expertise and relative professional status.

A systematic literature review of cognitive exchange in higher degree visual art education

“…In the Phase 1 literature, ten papers connected virtual learning pedagogies with cognitive exchange (Bosley and Young, 2006; Donnelly, 2013; Bellandi and Depropris, 2021; Caspi and Blau, 2008; Duffett, 2015; Hernández-Sellés et al, 2020; Guo et al, 2021; Penman and Lai, 2003; Peacock and Cowan, 2017; Johnson, 2016). This demonstrated that pedagogic choice could influence cognitive exchange.…”

“…Not all dialogic interactions between a teacher and student lead to cognitive exchange. Monologic exchange does not necessarily cause transfer (Mukhametzyanova, 2021) because feedback may be nonexistent or ineffective (Johnson, 2016). When learning, cognitive exchange may involve a teacher imparting information and a student appropriating knowledge (Dubiner, 2010), but it does not have to.…”

“…In higher education, cognitive exchange is linked to pedagogy (Hernández-Sellés et al, 2020; Peacock and Cowan, 2017), dialogic learning (Wegerif, 2013) and collaborative, physical, virtual, and blended experiences (Bosley and Young, 2006; Donnelly, 2013; Johnson, 2016; Guo et al, 2021). But this is not the case in art education.…”

The webcam and student engagement in synchronous online learning: visually or verbally?

“…In contrast, a webcam that is turned off makes it difficult for the instructor to provide timely and constructive feedback (Racheva, 2018 ). Note that research shows that effective feedback is an essential component of learning (Johnson, 2016 ; Winstone & Carless, 2019 ). For example, without a webcam, it is impossible to provide spontaneous non-verbal behavioral feedback, which is a widely used and successful strategy in face-to-face instruction (Li et al, 2020 ).…”

Consistency of examiner judgements in medical education: a case study of competency-based assessment

“…These findings are in accordance with previous studies on the characteristics of effective feedback provided to students, such as being timely and enabling dialogues with students (Carless, 2015), and potential barriers to feedback, such as negative perceptions of the inaccuracy and irrelevance of the feedback provided which might lead to rejection due to lack of trust (Boud & Molloy, 2013). Furthermore, these findings were broadly aligned with the four core factors of language, content, timing and form, each of which is related to the effectiveness of feedback in hierarchic professional contexts (Johnson, 2016). For example, the examiners indicated that the structured feedback reports were well-organised and that the language used was easy to understand.…”