Improving written feedback processes in mass higher education

Written feedback represents a powerful point of contact between higher education staff and learners. In an increasingly mass and consumer-oriented HE landscape, it has the potential to offer individualised support and scope for negotiation of the roles of expert/novice. However, despite the centrality of this form of feedback, student and teacher satisfaction with written feedback remains low. NSS results indicate that assessment and feedback are among the least highly rated aspects of the student learning experience. Moreover, while students report a lack of useable and meaningful feedback, teachers note that substantial time spent in its creation is not reflected in students’ uptake and application re. subsequent tasks and assessment.

In terms of addressing these issues, two key lines of research have emerged. The first has focused on ways of improving the quality of the written feedback ‘input message’, for example, by emphasising the importance of timeliness and clarity of response. A second advocates a learner-centred approach, in which the student is conceived of as an active agent in the process and responsible for acting upon and integrating feedback.

This paper proposes a move away from a ‘teacher or learner’ view of feedback in favour of a dialogic framework in which the interaction between staff and students and students as peers assumes a pivotal role. It draws on a constructivist view of learning to outline a range of feedback activities which are adaptive, discursive, interactive and reflective. While acknowledging the potential workload increases posed by preparing students to effectively engage in such activities, it suggests that a conceptual shift toward a dialogic framework for understanding and designing feedback could ultimately lead to efficiency gains.

Set reading

Nicol, D. (2010), From Monologue to Dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35 ( 5), 501-517

A copy of the paper is also available in Paperpile. Please email academic-practice@york.ac.uk for access.

Questions

• To what extent do you find the argument presented in the paper robust and credible?

• The paper is based on a constructivist view of learning. To what extent do current feedback processes within your department reflect this approach?

• Do you employ written feedback in your teaching? How is this provided? Would you employ the feedback activities advocated in the paper? What challenges might be encountered in doing so?