FHSS LEARNING & TEACHING CONFERENCE 2011 Feedback : refocusing our energies

1. FHSS LEARNING & TEACHING CONFERENCE 2011Feedback: refocusing our energies Rachel Hudson, DCQE and SECS

2. Curriculum Framework Document 2012 Section 3.2.5 Assessment • “Assessment for learning” • “Timeliness and quality of feedback” • “The use of feedback by students”

3. Students want feedback to help them improve: “I dislike the fact that they tell you what you have done wrong but do not elaborate so you don’t know how to improve it for next time.” 3rd Yr Humanities student “You need to understand how to improve, otherwise you will make the same mistakes over and over again.” 1st Yr Humanities student “I don’t find it that useful if a marker is critical of my work and then does not state future improvements or where exactly I went wrong.” 2nd Yr Social Science student

4. Students want opportunities to practice “what I don’t like is that there’s not enough, there’s no time or space for practice, er, and getting the feedback ... what I tend to find is, like, you have to do it in that moment and see what happens sort of thing... after you hand in a piece of work you do get good feedback and, but its like a bit too little too late sort of feeling, I mean its all useful but, erm, I would like if ... you have more practice essays sort of thing” (2nd Yr Humanities student)

5. Guidance and Feedback Loop Preliminary guidance Ongoing clarification & support Summative feedback – feeding forward to next assignment or unit Formative feedback After Hounsell et al 2008

6. Traditional focus for our energies: Preliminary guidance Ongoing clarification & support Summative feedback Formative feedback

7. Refocusing our energies: Preliminary guidance Ongoing clarification & support Summative feedback – feeding forward to next assignment or unit Formative feedback

8. Changes to PGCLTHE 30 credit unit • Introduced peer-marked formative assessment activity • Introduced self- assessment and extended tutor feedback on draft coursework • Reduced feedback on summatively marked coursework to a brief general comment and 3 feed-forward bullet points (after Lunsford 1997, cited in Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick 2006)

9. For discussion • Is the guidance and feedback cycle a useful aid to determining where to focus our energy? • In your own unit, could you redirect any of your energy away from summative feedback to earlier stages of the cycle? • Examples of what you are doing already?

10. References Gibbs G and Simpson C (2004)‘Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning’ Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1, 3-31 Hounsell D, McCune V, Hounsell J and Litjens J (2008) ‘The Quality of Guidance and Feedback to Students’ Higher Education Research and Development 27(1), 55 – 67 Nicol D and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) ‘Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice’ Studies in Higher Education 31 (2), 199-218