keynote sustainable feedback
TRANSCRIPT
Sustainable feedback & the development of feedback
literacies
David Carless,
University of Hong Kong,
21 June 2017 at University of Kent
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Overview
1. Feedback challenges
2. Sustainable feedback
3. Feedback literacies
4. Issues & Implications
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Aim
To explore possibilities for a more dialogic & sustainable approach to feedback processes
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SELECTED FEEDBACK CHALLENGES
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Feedback challenges
Too much feedback as telling
Difficulties in decoding feedback
Lack of engagement with feedback
Lack of strategies for using feedback
The way feedback is organised
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Feedback often seems like …
… a perversely belated revelation of things that should have been made clear earlier (Crook, Gross & Dymott, 2006)
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Closing feedback loops
It’s only feedback if students take some action
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SUSTAINABLE FEEDBACK
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Enhanced student role
Students generating & using feedback (Carless et al., 2011)
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Interview study
Sample:10 award-winning teachers from 10 different Faculties
Key finding: Conventional & sustainable feedback orientations (Carless et al. 2011)
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Exploring assessment study The University of Hong Kong
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Old paradigm New paradigm
Feedback as monologic information transfer
Feedback as dialogic interaction
Conventional feedback
Sustainable feedback
Sustainable feedback defined
Dialogic activities in which students generate and use feedback from peers, self or others as part of self-regulation
(Carless, 2013)
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Sustainable feedback principles
• Prompting learner action
• Peers as active source of feedback
• Inner dialogue/internal feedback
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UKC Policy documents
Assessment & feedback design for lifelong learning & development of independent learners Enabling students to develop through feedback dialogues
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BARRIERS TO SUSTAINABLE FEEDBACK
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Conservatism in assessment
Generally low levels of staff assessment literacy (Norton et al., 2013)
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Limited incentives
Pressure of multiple demands: sophisticated feedback design not rewarded
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Failing to connect
Difficulties for lower achievers to make sense of feedback (Orsmond & Merry, 2013)
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Growth mindset?
Students respond to feedback processes based on their own motivations
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Handling critique
Self-management skills;
emotional maturity
(Pitt & Norton, 2016)
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DEVELOPING STUDENT FEEDBACK LITERACIES
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Enabling activities
1. Peer feedback
2. Analyzing exemplars
3. Honing self-evaluative capacities
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Teacher guidance
Teacher scaffolding
Peer feedback
Learners gain more from composing than receiving peer feedback (Nicol et al., 2014)
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Peer feedback essentials
• Sell rationale & benefits to students
• Provide training, modeling & support
• Communicate gains for ‘giver’
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Analyzing exemplars
Dialogue to develop student appreciation of the nature of quality (Carless & Chan, 2016)
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Self-evaluation
Enhancing student ability to self-monitor their work in progress
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Variety in assessment
Different assessment tasks as barrier to development of self-evaluative capacities (Boud et al., 2015)
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Teacher facilitating role
Selling; Modelling; Guiding; Scaffolding
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TECHNOLOGY
ENABLED FEEDBACK
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Audio & Video feedback
Rapport
Nuance
Personalisation
Monologue or Dialogue?
Time saver?
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Peer video feedback
Peer-to-peer video feedback
delivered via Facebook
Hung (2016)
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Use of Facebook
History students uploaded drafts & received peer feedback (Carless, 2015)
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Scaling up
Need for more critical perspectives on technology-enabled feedback strategies (Dawson & Henderson, 2017)
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Final thoughts
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Feedback designs
Feedback as integral part of curriculum & course design (Boud & Molloy, 2013)
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Good feedback designs
Program-wide coherent assessment & feedback designs;
Timely dialogues: in-class, online & peer feedback;
Development of sustainable feedback
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Student feedback literacy
- Skills / capacities
- Developmental aspects
- Attitudinal dimensions
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<……...>
Staff development
Dialogue & communication
Communities of practice
Leadership
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THANK YOU
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References
Boud, D., Lawson, R. & Thompson, D. (2015). The calibration of student judgement through self-assessment: disruptive effects of assessment patterns. Higher Education Research and Development, 34(1), 45-59.
Boud, D. & Molloy, E. (2013). Rethinking models of feedback for learning: The challenge of design. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 698-712.
Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 219-233.
Carless, D. (2013). Sustainable feedback and the development of student self-evaluative capacities. In Merry, S., Price, M., Carless, D. & Taras, M. (Eds.). Reconceptualising feedback in higher education: developing dialogue with students. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2015). Excellence in University Assessment: Learning from award-winning practice. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. & K.K.H. Chan (2016). Managing dialogic use of exemplars. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1211246
Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M. & Lam, J. (2011). Developing sustainable feedback practices. Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.
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References (continued)
Crook, C., Gross, H. & Dymott, R. (2006). Assessment relationships in higher education: The tension of process and practice. British Educational Research Journal, 32(1), 95-114.
Dawson, P. & Henderson, M. (2017). How does Technology Enable Scaling up Assessment for Learning? In D. Carless, S. Bridges, C.K.W. Chan & R. Glofcheski (Eds.), Scaling up Assessment for learning in Higher Education. Singapore: Springer.
Hung, S.-T. A. (2016). Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video technology. Computers & Education, 98, 90-101.
Nicol, D., Thomson, A. & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: A peer review perspective. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), 102-122.
Norton, L., Norton, B. & Shannon, L. (2013). Revitalising assessment design: What is holding new lecturers back? Higher Education, 66(2), 233-251.
Orsmond, P. & Merry, S. (2013). The importance of self-assessment in students’ use of tutors’ feedback: A qualitative study of high and non-high achieving biology undergraduates. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 737-753.
Pitt, E. & Norton, L. (2016). ‘Now that’s the feedback I want!’ Students’ reactions to feedback on graded work and what they do with it. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(4), 499-516.
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Shifts in priorities
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Increase Decrease
In-class dialogic feedback within module time
Unidirectional comments after completion of module
Written feedback comments on first assessment task of module
Written feedback comments on final task of module
Feedback for first year students
Feedback for final year students
Defining feedback
“A dialogic process in which learners make sense of information from varied sources and use it to enhance the quality of their work or learning strategies”.
Carless (2015, p.192) building on Boud & Molloy (2013)
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Productive assessment task design
Appreciating the nature of quality work
Student engagement with feedback
Learning-oriented assessment framework