What is good quality feedback?
Feedback should be a dialogue rather than one-way communication. It should clearly link to the learning outcomes and encourage students to reflect on their learning.
Good feedback has a positive impact on the person receiving it:
- it encourages attention to the assessment task - by focusing the student's effort on the task,
- it motivates the student to continue to work - by encouraging them to do the best they can,
- it provides evidence of existing good practice - so the student knows what and why they have done well,
- clarifies the expected standards - for the piece of assessment
- signposts where and how to improve.
A constructive feedback dialogue enables the student to take control of their own assessment by making them active participants in the process.
Clarify what good performance is
Much student dissatisfaction as well as unsatisfactory performance, relates to the fact that they have not fully understood the assessment criteria. It is important to first and foremost make clear what good performance is.
Feedback needs to explicitly state
- what was done well (or badly) and why
- where there is room for improvement and why
- what steps to take to improve
Good feedback is fair, honest and clear. The feedback wording, the mark and the aspects of the work the feedback refers to, need to be aligned or consistent.
Facilitate the development of reflection and self-assessment
It is important to note what students have done well. Many students find it hard to self-assess and reflect critically. So it is vital that the feedback and comments provided to them highlight how they shall interpret the feedback and reflect upon their learning development.
When suggesting what to improve, it is good practice to pick out no more than three aspects of the work. Giving students a longer list can lead to them just 'shutting down' and ignoring all your advice.
These three aspects should:
- be the key things that would make a difference to the quality of the work
- be achievable within the students' time and other work constraints
- refer to material which the student can reasonably access.
Deliver high quality information to students about their learning
Feedback of good quality is timely (delivered soon enough after the hand in so that it can be acted upon), relevant (to the student and the context), informative (not only focusing on strengths and weaknesses or spelling but also more abstract academic concepts like strength of an argument) and understandable (this relates to both the language used as well as the quantity of feedback) and allows students to close the gap between where they are and where they need to be with their work.
Encourage dialogue
Feedback should be considered more as a discussion, rather than a one-way channelling of information from the tutor to the student. Active involvement in a discussion around students' work helps students to challenge their knowledge and belief and reassess what they know.
Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
Feedback influences how students feel about their course, their performance and themselves. It is important then to structure feedback in such a way as to maintain or increase students' motivation and to encourage them to focus on learning goals rather than performance goal (i.e passing the test).
Provide opportunities to close the gap
The value of feedback is assessed in terms of action, i.e. feedback has to lead to changes in student behaviour. The aim of the tutor and peer feedback is to encourage students to respond to the comments to complete the feedback loop (Saddler, 1989).
Provide information that teachers can use to shape their teaching
Feedback practice not only refers to teachers commenting on students' work but also learners providing their tutors with information. Student feedback is useful for teachers since it provides a clearer understanding of students' learning process and difficulties they might have. This helps to structure feedback so that it caters to the needs of the learners.
Additional resources
There are some good resources produced by the University of Reading in relation to Feedback:
- Formative Feedback Guidelines in Relation to Learner Characteristics
- Formative Feedback Guidelines to Enhance Learning (Things to Do)
- Strategies to improve NSS scores in relation to question on using feedback to improve understanding, providing prompt feedback and providing detailed comments.
- A guide on how to give feedback to different types of learners,
Videos about feedback
"Feeding Forward"- A short interview explaining how to educate students in advance about assessment criteria and tutor's expectations by using marking guide to assess others' work.
"Setting High standards" - Advice on how to use an assessment, feedback and re-submission process to coach students about how to reach a higher standard of work at Murdoch University.
"Assessment Careers" - A summary of a JISC funded project aiming to enable students to make better use of the feedback that staff provide through introducing feed forward mechanisms.
"Feed Forward" - An example of how feed forward processes are established at Manchester Metropolitan University.
"Redesigning feedback involves addressing the feedback literacy of students and staff" - A short talk by David Boud discussing important considerations for feedback to make a difference to student work.
"What do students say?" - A video produced by HEA presenting students' views of feedback and what they consider good and bad feedback.
Further reading
Bailey, R. and Garner, M. (2010) Is the feedback in higher education assessment worth the paper it is written on? Teachers' reflections on their practices. Teaching in Higher Education, 15:2, pp.187- 198
Boud D (1995) Enhancing learning through self assessment London: Kogan Page
Carless, D. (2006) Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), pp. 219–233.
Harlen, W. and Crick, R.D. (2003) Testing and motivation for learning. Assessment in Education 10 (2), 169–207.
Hanrahan, S. and Isaacs, G. (2001) Assessing self- and peer-assessment: the students' views. Higher Education Research & Development 20(1), 53-68
Higgins, R. (2000) "Be more critical!": Rethinking Assessment Feedback. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference, Cardiff University, September 7-10 2000.
Juwah, C., et al. (2004). Enhancing student learning through effective formative feedback.
Nicol, D (in press) From monologue to dialogue: Improving written feedback processes in mass higher education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education.
Nicol, D.J. and Boyle, J.T. (2003) Peer Instruction versus Class-wide Discussion in large classes: a comparison of two interaction methods in the wired classroom. Studies in Higher Education 28 (4), 457–473.
Stead, D.R. (2005), A review of the one-minute paper, Active Learning in Higher Education, 6, 118-131
Taras, M. (2003) To feedback or not to feedback in student self-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 549-565.
Winter, C. and Dye, V. (2004), An investigation into the reasons why students do not collect marked assignments and the accompanying feedback.