What teachers say and what students perceive – Interpretations of feedback in teacher-student assessment dialogues

Abstract

It is commonly known and accepted that feedback has a significant effect on learning and that it is a wise investment in the education system to develop good strategies for assessment involving informative feedback. However, despite the effort put into professional development programmes for teachers and despite teachers working with the recommended didactic approaches to assessment, students still sometimes miss out on intended learning. The current study aims to uncover different types of communicative interaction involving feedback. Through a qualitative analysis of observation notes and video, it was possible to distinguish four typical categories of feedback. The common arenas for formative assessment dialogue are identified and typical actions that are taken by the students and the teachers in the different interactional situations are discussed. The findings imply that knowledge and awareness of the context in which the interaction is played out is important for understanding how students relate to feedback.

Vocational teachers` professional development in assessment for learning

“…However, in recent discussions, several researchers have highlighted the fact that the concept of formative assessment is not a well-defined concept with definitions that reflect a specific practice (Bennett 2011;Tveit 2014;Stobart and Hopfenbeck 2014;Baird et al 2017). Several studies also show that quality feedback from teachers is rarely given in the classroom (see, e.g., Engelsen and Smith 2010;Voerman et al 2012;Rønsen 2013). Implementation of formative assessment in classrooms relies on teachers' interpretations of the concepts and their belief in the purpose of feedback (Opfer and Pedder 2011;Baird et al 2014;Gamlem 2015).…”