What are the challenges of supporting students’ use of feedback?
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So our research shows that students can find it difficult to use feedback for many reasons. Firstly, they might find it difficult to understand or decode the messages that are contained within feedback comments from their teachers. And often feedback comments are written in academic language or language that is quite hard for students to understand and extract the key meaning from.
Second, students may understand the comments but may not really know how to take those next steps to put them into action. So they might understand what they need to improve but don’t know what actions or steps they need to take to be able to work towards improvement.
Third, sometimes students don’t feel in control of using feedback or they lack the agency to use feedback. And this can be because in many higher education programs where we divide learning into modules or courses or units, they can feel that feedback on one doesn’t necessarily apply to another, and feel they don’t have opportunity to use feedback.
And finally sometimes students can find it difficult to use feedback because they find it difficult to get the motivation to put in what is often quite hard work to transfer feedback from one area to another, and students may not feel that that’s worthwhile to do.
Students can find it hard to use feedback for various reasons (Winstone et al., 2017):
- Firstly, the information in feedback comments can be challenging to understand, often containing academic jargon that obscures the key message or messages.
- Secondly, even when students understand the feedback, they may not know how to use it to improve. Using feedback effectively is a skill, and students need opportunities to develop and refine these skills.
- Thirdly, students may lack opportunities to apply feedback. Assessments often occur at the end of modules, units, or courses, limiting chances to use feedback for improvement in future tasks.
- Finally, students may not feel motivated to engage with feedback. It can seem like hard work to process feedback and develop related skills, and some students may not perceive it as worthwhile.
These barriers present a challenge for educators, as supporting students in developing feedback-use skills takes time. Additionally, constraints on assessment design can sometimes limit opportunities to schedule assessments in ways that allow for the effective transfer of feedback. Failing to address these challenges can lead to frustration with the assessment and feedback process for both educators and students, and it can feel that the time spent providing comments is wasted.
References:
Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Rowntree, J., & Parker, M. (2017). 'It'd be useful, but I wouldn't use it': barriers to university students' feedback seeking and recipience. Studies in Higher Education 42(11), 2026-2041.
Discussions
How can you create more and better opportunities for students to use the feedback they have received?
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