Making use of feedback on assignments
- What is feedback?
- Why have feedback?
- How to deal with feedback
- Interpreting feedback
- What if…?
- Giving feedback to other students
What is feedback?
Feedback is given by staff or other students to provide an evaluation of your work. This feedback may be oral or written, it may be a grading or mark, or it may provide comments as to the specific strengths and weaknesses of your work.
The kind of feedback you receive will depend on the course area and the task. Different course areas have different ways of working and hence the expectations of your work and the ways of talking about it will vary. The feedback you get will also depend on the individual perspectives and style of the person giving it.
Feedback is usually given at the completion of an assessment task. In some cases you may also be given, or seek, feedback on work in progress. You can use this feedback to modify what you are doing and so come up with a better product.
Feedback is most commonly provided by the teaching staff within a course. It may also be given by other students, by professionals from outside the University, by Learning and Teaching Unit staff or by friends or family members.
Why have feedback?
Getting feedback will help you form a more objective and comprehensive idea of the work you are producing. All the work you do in your program is designed to help you develop a range of graduate qualities. Every course within your program and every assessment task within each course are part of the development of those qualities and are reflected in the course objectives and the assessment criteria.
You may only be interested in the grade you are given for a task. However receiving more detailed feedback within a course can:
- give you an idea of how well and to what extent you are meeting the objectives of that course.
- help you see what skills, knowledge and abilities still need development and what you might do to achieve these more fully.
How to deal with feedback
Some of the feedback you get will be positive, some will be negative. A common human reaction to receiving negative feedback is to feel judged as a person. All feedback can be extremely valuable in helping you develop greater expertise in the course area and those qualities you will need as a graduating professional. To gain as much as you can from feedback, you may find the following ideas helpful:
- It is not you as a person that is being critiqued, but your work. Try to distance yourself from the work you produce and see it as something separate from yourself.
- The purpose of feedback is to help you produce a better quality outcome.
- The feedback will be influenced by the perspective and background of the person giving it. How valid do you consider the comments to be? How seriously will you take them?
- The feedback cannot be useful if you are unsure of what it means. If necessary ask for clarification or explanation of comments made or grades given.
- The feedback can identify the areas of strength that you wish to retain and build on and those that need further development. Which one(s) will you focus on? What resources can you draw on, what strategies will you use, to help you?
Interpreting feedback
You may not always be clear about just what is meant by the feedback you receive. Here are some of the more common comments students receive and what those comments mean:
Comment |
Meaning |
|---|---|
You need more evidence to support your argument |
You have expressed some ideas relating to the assignment topic. You now need o refer to research or theory from your reading that justifies those ideas, remembering to cite your references. |
Where is your argument? |
Your have not clearly stated your position in relation to the question or presented a structured case to justify that position. Each point you want to make needs to be clearly and explicitly stated. |
Too much reliance on references |
While you have demonstrated that you have read on the topic and included ideas from your reading, you also need to be clear about what position you take in relation to the topic and what points you want to make. State your points and use the reference material to back them up. |
Referencing inadequate |
You have included material from other sources without referencing it appropriately. Every time you include the words or ideas of others, as a direct quote, a paraphrase or a summary, you need to acknowledge them by referencing appropriately. |
Insufficient analysis of the issues |
You have probably described the issues (ie answered the question what?). You also need to comment on those issues - What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are similarities and contradictions in various ways of looking at them? What is the impact of these issues? What are the implications? Consider some other w questions - why? how? what if? So what? |
Link your ideas to theory |
You may have given practical or real-life examples relating to the question. You need now to comment on those in terms of the theory. What theories are relevant to your ideas or examples? Do the theories totally fit with your ideas? What aspects of different theories do or do not apply? Why and how? |
What if…?
…you receive little or no feedback and you would like some?
Ask for more detailed or more explicit feedback, explaining that you would like to have this so that you will know how you might improve your work.
…you receive feedback that you don't understand?
Ask for a clearer explanation of what the comments mean.
…you can't see how the comments apply to your work?
Ask if the comments can be explained by showing particular examples from your work that the comments refer to.
. …the feedback is all negative?
Point out that all the comments were negative. Ask if there are any positive comments that could be made about the work.
…the feedback was given in a way that you found humiliating and destructive?
If anyone else was present, check you perceptions with them. To explore your possible options talk to someone from
the
UniLife or to a counsellor at
the Learning and Teaching Unit. (You
can also consult the University's policy on the
Resolution of Student Grievances.
…the grade given seems inconsistent with the comments made?
Explain that you are surprised by the grade you have been given. Point out that the comments led you to expect a different grade. Ask what aspects of the work led to that particular grade
…you believe the feedback and grade are unjustified and unfair?
If you feel that your work has been assessed unfairly, University policy allows you to apply for a
remarking.
…you failed?
Try to keep this in perspective in the context of the rest of your life. Failing one assessment is something that happens to many ultimately successful students. Talk to your lecturer or tutor or Learning and Teaching Unit staff to find out why you failed.
Giving feedback to other students
You may be asked to give feedback to another student. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:
- Be clear about the basis for the feedback: What are the objectives of the work? How will you know the student has achieved them?
- How will you give the feedback? Will it be written, oral, private, public, formal, informal?
- Identify what the student has done well, not only the areas needing improvement. Give some positive feedback before the negative.
- If possible suggest how they might have produced a more successful product rather than just identifying what is wrong with their work.
- Give examples from the student's work to illustrate and explain your comments.
- Be aware of the receiver's vulnerability and present your feedback in as careful and respectful a way as you can.
- Be explicit. General comments like 'great' or 'ok' or 'could be better' are too vague.
- Be honest - but not brutally so.
- List your comments in order of importance, most important first. Limit the number of comments you make and say how important you consider each one to be, e.g. The effect of … is very powerful or One minor point is…
An effective feedback process will help your continuing development as a student and then as a professional. It is important therefore to be able to receive it constructively and to give it carefully.
Additional reading
Bate, D & Sharpe, P 1996, Writer’s handbook for university students, Harcourt Brace, NSW.
Marshall, LA & Rowland, F 1985, A guide to learning independently, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.