Giving feedback
Resources
Overview
- Learning and Feedback - In a nutshell - 5 minute overview
In their 2005 article, 'Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students' Learning', (PDF 316kb - download Adobe Acrobat) Graham Gibbs and Claire Simpson reviewed over 80 papers related to assessment to improve learning in higher education. They have crystallised this research into several conditions that need to be met to ensure that feedback on assessment results in improved student learning outcomes. These conditions are as follows:
- Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail
- The feedback focuses on students’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the students’ control, rather than on the students themselves and/or their characteristics
- The feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or to receive further assistance
- Feedback is appropriate to the purpose of the assignment and to its criteria for success
- Feedback is appropriate in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing (conceptions of task, learning, knowledge, discipline discourse)
- Feedback is received and attended to and acted upon by the student
It is also important to appreciate that feedback can mean different things to students and their teachers. When students respond to item 7 in the Course Evaluation Instrument (CEI), that is 'I have received feedback that is constructive and helpful' it is quite likely that they have variable understandings of the word feedback. Dai Hounsell, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Edinburgh, argues that we need to explore our assumptions about feedback if we are going to reinvent how we provide effective feedback at a university level. Streaming video from Professor Hounsell's July 2005 visit to Adelaide is available. The following link provides a selection of additional techniques for giving feedback to improve student learning in higher education.