Not seeing the wood for the trees: developing a feedback analysis tool to explore feed forward in modularised programmes

Abstract

This paper considers feedback in the context of modularised programmes in higher education in the UK. It is argued that the self-contained nature of modular assessment may limit feedback dialogue between staff and students to assignment specific issues, and may impede student progress towards holistic programme level aims and outcomes. A feedback profiling tool was developed to categorise feedback on draft and final work. The analysis of feedback on 63 samples of draft work and 154 samples of final work showed different patterns. There were more feedback comments on draft work, and the feedback comments were dominated by advice and critique, while the feedback comments on the final work were overwhelmingly dominated by praise. This pattern of feedback is problematised in terms of feed forward from one module to the next as students work towards the development of programme level outcomes. Ipsative feedback (on progress) and feed forward in terms of disciplinary specific skills and programme level outcomes are recommended to enable students to act on feedback on end-of-module work, and develop students' capacity to recontextualise disciplinary specific skills throughout a programme. Some developmental applications for the feedback profiling tool are also suggested.

Examining the nature and effects of feedback dialogue

“…Otherwise, feedback research has typically coded comments provided by teachers using pre-specified codes derived from the literature (e.g. Brown and Glover 2006;Hughes, Smith, and Creese 2015). This research indicates that the majority of written feedback comments are at the level of task rather than self-regulation (Glover and Brown 2006;Orsmond and Merry 2011;Arts, Jaspers, and Joosten-ten Brinke 2016).…”

‘It'd be useful, but I wouldn't use it’: barriers to university students’ feedback seeking and recipience

“…For example, Hughes (2011) describes an ipsative approach of focusing feedback on the learner's individual improvement, rather than on their performance relative to grading criteria. Recent evidence suggests that this form of feedback could better encourage students to engage and subsequently act (Hughes, Wood, & Kitagawa 2014), particularly in modularised programmes where the timing and focus of feedback comments often make it difficult for students to relate them from one assignment to the next (Hughes, Smith, & Creese 2015).…”

Building Feedback Literacy: Students’ Perceptions of the Developing Engagement With Feedback Toolkit

“…Like this barrier, the next of Winstone et al's barriers resonates with Jönsson's discussion: the term cognisance was used to represent students' difficulty in knowing which strategies they could use to implement feedback. The third barrier, agency, refers to students' difficulties in feeling empowered to act upon feedback; a common issue arising under this theme was the perceived difficulty in transferring feedback across different unrelated assignments in a modularized curriculum (see also Hughes et al, 2015;Jessop, 2017). Finally, the barrier of volition represents unwillingness on students' part to put in the "hard graft" required to realize the impact of feedback (Carless, 2015).…”