Relieving feedback frustrations

1. Designing effective
feedback processes
David Carless
University of Hong Kong
May 6, 2016
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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2. Overview
1. Challenges and frustrations
2. Defining feedback
3. Prospects for dialogic feedback
4. Examples, issues & implications
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3. Frustrations
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4. Staff frustrations
• Heavy marking load
• Students don’t collect feedback
• Students mainly interested in the grade
• Students lack motivation to act
…..
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5. Marking & Grading
End of semester grading involves:
-Awarding a grade
-Justifying the grade
-Providing specific comments
-Providing generic comments
-Reciprocity
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6. Student frustrations
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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7. Differing perceptions
Study 1. Questionnaire data from 460 staff &
1740 students
+ qualitative data from BEd Students
Teachers thought their feedback was more
useful than students did (Carless, 2006)
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8. DEFINING & SITUATING
FEEDBACK
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9. What does ‘feedback’ mean?
As dialogues around student work
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As comments …
Providing information about performance
AND/
OR

10. The University of Hong Kong
Comments Dialogue
Feedback as
monologic
information
transfer
Feedback as
dialogic
interaction

11. 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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12. Closing feedback loops
It’s only feedback
if students take
some action
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13. Bigger picture
Feedback as
assessment design
issue
Feedback as a
pedagogical issue
Feedback as a
relational issue
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14. The University of Hong Kong
Productive assessment
task design
Understanding quality in the
discipline
Student engagement
with feedback
Learning-oriented assessment framework

16. Merry, Price, Carless, & Taras (2013)

17. Discussion
Share with a partner or small group,
one or two potentially promising
feedback strategies
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18. FEEDBACK AS DIALOGUE
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19. Dialogic feedback principles
• Process rather than product
• Prompting learner action
• Peers as active source of feedback
• Inner dialogue, internal feedback
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20. Key aim of feedback
To enhance student
ability to self-monitor
their work in
progress
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21. Dialogic feedback in practice
1. Teacher-facilitated dialogic feedback
2. Technology-enabled dialogic feedback
3. Peer feedback and internal feedback
(Nicol, 2010)
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22. Assessment dialogues
Discussing assessment processes to help
students understand rules of the game
(Carless, 2006)
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23. Guidance & feedback
Integrated cycles of guidance & feedback
within learning processes (Hounsell et al.
2008)
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24. Model of guidance & feedback
Preparatory Guidance
-Clarifying task
-Engaging with criteria
-Analyzing exemplars
Student self-monitoring
-Seeking & using feedback
-Peer review
-Self-evaluation
Ongoing clarification
-Opportunities for practice
-Apply criteria
-Review work in progress

25. Cumulative task designs
• Task 1  feedback  interlinked task 2
• Position students as active feedback
seekers & users
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26. Feedback designs
Activities in which students make judgments
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27. Exemplars & feedback
Analysis of exemplars can support students
in decoding teacher feedback (To & Carless,
2015)
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28. Exemplars: queries?
Questions or comments on using exemplars
of student work to illustrate aspects of
quality
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29. TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED
STRATEGIES
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30. Learning Management Systems
Storing and accessing feedback comments
Prompting students to act on prior feedback
(before receiving more feedback)
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31. Online discussion forum
Business case: graded online participation
“Having a grading allocation … gives some
life to it” (Carless, 2015, p. 124)
Sense of cumulativeness vs stating own
opinion
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32. Use of Facebook
More attractive to students than Moodle
(Deng & Tavares, 2013)
History students uploaded drafts & received
peer feedback (Carless, 2015)
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33. Audio (& video) feedback
Providing recorded verbal commentary
(instead of written feedback?)
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34. Audio feedback: pros
• Viewed positively by students (Lunt &
Curran, 2010)
• Shows concern; permits nuanced
feedback or detail (Savin-Baden, 2010)
• May resemble a dialogue (Nicol, 2010)
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35. Audio feedback: cons
• ‘Moderate’ impact on student learning
(Gould & Day, 2013)
• Difficult in failure cases
• Workload? (Hennessy & Forester, 2014)
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36. STUDENT ROLE IN SEEKING,
GENERATING & USING
FEEDBACK
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37. Peer involvement
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Peer assessment with grades often resisted
Peer feedback or peer review (without
grades) generally more attractive

38. Sharing: peer feedback
To what extent are your students willing and
active in engaging in peer feedback?
Any challenges or good strategies to share
…
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39. Peer feedback
Potentially more
plentiful …
But peers often viewed
as lacking expertise
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40. Composing peer feedback
Providing feedback more cognitively engaging
than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)
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41. Sustainable feedback
Enhancing student role to generate & use
feedback (Carless et al., 2011; Hounsell,
2007)
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42. SELECTED FEEDBACK
CHALLENGES
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43. Confusion over purposes
Student & staff confusions around feedback
& what it can achieve (Price et al., 2010)
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44. Failing to connect
Difficulties for lower achievers to make
sense of feedback (Orsmond & Merry, 2013)
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45. Emotional reactions
Honest but constructive feedback
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46. Care and trust
Feedback is a social and relational act:
Care (Sutton, 2012)
Trust (Carless, 2009, 2013)
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47. Implications
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48. Feedback literacy
Teachers need to
help students
understand
feedback & how
they can use it
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49. Good feedback practice
Integration of feedback & task design;
Timely dialogues: online & peer feedback;
Development of student self-regulation for
sustainable feedback
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50. Shifts in priorities
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Increase Decrease
In-class guidance within course
time
Unidirectional comments after
course completion
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

51. THANK YOU
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52. Ongoing research
1. Dialogic use of exemplars
2. Longitudinal study of how students
process & use feedback
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