Disciplinary Thinking - Feedback: Presentation slides for a workshop on taking a disciplinary approach to developing feedback practices in HE. Taken from the Feedback Theme OER at: http://disciplinarythinking.wordpress.com

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drift-words/76209257/
858837
Photo: Bark CC BY 2.0
Photo: Dilo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Considering feedback through a
disciplinary lens
Exploring feedback practices and
priorities in different academic fields

2. Workshop outline
ntroduction and icebreaker
eview and discussion of general feedback
advice
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/3105721570/
onsideration of disciplinary practices
• Peer review practices (feedback for
academics)
• Departmental practices (feedback for
students)
eedback as part of disciplinary practice
Photo: Steve Berardi. CC BY-SA

3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/375318
Session Aims
In this session, participants will …
6/
Photo: Wonderlane CC BY
eview and critique general advice on giving feedback to students
dentify feedback practices within participants’ disciplines (including those
in operation for academics as well as students)
engage critically with current disciplinary feedback practices and priorities
• Do current practices map on to subject benchmark statements?
• What subject priorities are being communicated through feedback?
xamine and compare (from a disciplinary perspective) participants’
current feedback approaches

4. Feedback - icebreaker
lease think about instances in which you
receive feedback.
• Jot down up to 3 characteristics of the feedback
that you find most useful.
• Discuss these with two others.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/322
6981951/
Photo: woodleywonderworks CC BY 2.0

5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2
General advice for giving
feedback to students (drawing on Juwah,
et al. 2004)
Image:
Photo: woodleywonderworks. CC BY-NC 2.0
deally, good feedback …
. facilitates the development of self assessment (reflection) in
learning.
. encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning.
. helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected
standards).
. provides opportunities to close the gap between current and
desired performance.
. delivers high quality information to students about their learning.

6. General advice for giving feedback to
students (drawing on Juwah, et al. 2004)
deally, good feedback …
acilitates the development of self assessment (reflection) in
learning.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21384462@N00/203
• Students should see their own assessment of their work
as an integral part of the feedback process. Feedback is
2. Encourages something ‘done’ to students.
not just teacher and peer
dialogue around learning.
• Feedback should be an
ongoing dialogue, looking
9548271
forward as well as back.
Photo: Fish2000 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

7. Feedback pattern to engage students
Duhs, R. (2011)
1. Student does work and comments on it.
2. Student submits draft and/or works on draft
with peer review and tutor check.
3. Student improves work.
4. Student submits work to tutor for marking and
feedback.
5. Student studies feedback.
6. Student plans follow-up action.
Rosalind Duhs 2011 cc-by-nc-sa

8. Feedback pattern to engage students
Draft and redraft
ecommended pattern: Self Assessment
tudent  Peer Assessment
tudent/peers/tutor  Tutor Assessment
tudent  Feedback action plan
utor  Rosalind Duhs 2011 cc-by-nc-sa

9. ‘One potentially constraining factor is that
feedback may mark the end of a transaction
rather than a step in an ongoing process of
development. The feedback can convey to a
student what has been done well and what could
be improved, but if the assignment came towards
the end of a course (as it frequently does), there
may be no direct or imminent opportunity to try
to put the resulting feedback to good use.’
(Hounsell, et al., 2008 cited in 'Strategies to
improve feedback').

10. General advice for giving feedback to
students (drawing on Juwah, et al. 2004)
. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria,
expected standards).
• Hounsell (1997 cited in Juwah, et al 2004) and others have shown that
students and lecturers frequently do not have a shared understanding
of what constitutes a successful piece of assessed writing.
. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current
and desired performance.
• Ideally, feedback should help students get closer to the desired
standard for the task. Juwah, et al, observe that more opportunities
for students to act on feedback should be made available.
. Delivers high quality information to students about their
learning.
• Timely feedback is of most use to students. Research suggests that
feedback should be relevant to the task and stated criteria, and not so
lengthy that it is overwhelming to the student.

11. General advice for giving feedback to
students (drawing on Juwah, et al. 2004)
. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem.
Students see good feedback as motivational. (NUS report, 2008)
. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape
the teaching.
One of the potential advantages of using feedback dialogues is that the
Photo: kpwerker CC BY-SA 2.0
teacher gains more insight into student perspectives and performance.
(Hughes, et al. 2011)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64693558@N00/2635694952

12. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollyali
Discussion points
/408096694/
Photo: Molly Ali. CC BY-NC 2.0
What other broad principles would participants
wish to add to the SENLEF list?
Thinking as a subject specialist, what are your
priorities for feedback?

13. Activity 1: Feedback principles and
disciplines
lease use the grid (handout 1) to consider
these principles in light of feedback practices
in your discipline.
lease take up to 10 minutes to work through
the grid, either individually or in pairs.

14. Discussion
hat does the introduction of disciplinarity as a
http://www.freephotogaleries.com/picture/Syringe_with_vi
lens offer to the discussion of feedback
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32104790@N02/5163933978
principles?
als/category/4-science
Photo: Andrei Ceru. CC v. 3.0
Photo: University of Salford CC BY 2.0
Photo: Nic McPhee CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26406
919@N00/313121704

15. Feedback as part of disciplinary practice
for academics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/techcocktail/6152321042/
Photo: Jimmy Gardner CC BY-SA 2.0

16. Some examples of instances in which
academics receive feedback
Journal article reviewers Writing with co-authors Conference
submissions/presentations
Book editors Course teams/committees Submissions to
professional bodies
Appraisal/promotion cases Online writing (eg blogs) Grant proposals/reports

18. Discussion point
Being a writer and recipient of feedback in
your subject …
When and how do you receive or
give feedback on research?
What are the practices and
priorities in your field? (Do you
tend to get written feedback,
spoken feedback? Is it
constructive? Are there
opportunities for informal
feedback?)

19. Activity 2: Disciplinary feedback practices –
peer review
Please take the feedback and guidelines that you have
brought with you and consider the following:
hat is being valued here? (for example, results, writing
style, research methodology, reference to the existing
literature?)
How is the feedback communicated?
How much developmental feedback is offered?

20. Activity 2 - Discussion
Having worked through the questions on the
previous slide, please discuss your findings in
mixed disciplinary groups.
re there commonalities across disciplines?
hat features of the feedback are specific to

21. Implications for feedback to students?
ow much of the reviewing experience can be
transferred to giving feedback to students in
your field?
o you ever show students the types of
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32332324@N00/4346137788
feedback you receive as a writer in your
subject?
Photo: Chris Valentine CC BY-NC 2.0

22. Activity 3: Disciplinary aims and feedback
lease look at the benchmarking statement for your discipline:
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/AssuringStandardsAndQuality/subject-
guidance/Pages/Honours-degree-benchmark-statements.aspx
sing the relevant section of the statement (eg ‘teaching,
learning and assessment’ or ‘graduate attributes’ or similar),
please consider the extent to which certain types of or
approaches to feedback might help students develop the
attributes or skills identified here.

23. Activity 4: Revising your feedback practice
ow could you develop your approach to
feedback in order to make it more relevant to
student learning in your discipline?
lease review either a specific assessment item
on your course or your feedback practices
more generally and consider ways in which
you might extend or change the approach to
feedback that you are using.

24. Conclusions
• Feedback is part of the discipline and, as such, is shaped by
subject conventions.
• Feedback can help students enter disciplinary conversations.
• Dialogic feedback and ‘feedforward’ help students see
feedback as part of a process of learning the subject
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8542711@N08/4337
619777
Photo: Rosipaw CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

25. References
arnell, E.; MacDonald, J.; McCallum, B.; and Scott, M. (2008) Passion and
Politics: Academics reflect on writing for publication. London: IOE.
uhs, R. (2011) ‘Assessment and feedback to students: assessment shapes
learning’ http://www.ucl.ac.uk/calt/cpd4he/resources/assessment
ounsell, D., McCune, V., Hounsell, J. and Litjens, J. (2008) The quality of
guidance and feedback to students. Higher Education Research &
Development, 27.1, pp. 55-67.
uwah, C.; Macfarlane-Dick, D.; Matthew, B.; Nicol, D.; Ross, D.; and Smith,
B. (2004) ‘Enhancing student learning through effective formative
feedback’ HEA publication.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/resources/resourcedata
base/id353_senlef_guide.pdf
US Student Experience Report (2008)
http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/350/NUS_StudentExperienceReport.pdf

26. Learning Resource Metadata
Field/Element Value:
Title Disciplinary Thinking – Feedback: presentation
Presentation slides for a workshop on taking a disciplinary approach to developing
Description feedback practices in HE.
Theme Feedback
Subject HE - Education
Author Colleen McKenna & Jane Hughes: HEDERA, 2012
Owner The University of Bath
Audience Educational developers in accredited programmes & courses in higher education.
Issue Date 24/05/2012
Last updated Date 04/08/2012
Version Final
PSF Mapping A3, K5
License Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
ukoer, education, discthink, disciplinary thinking, hedera, university of bath,
Keywords feedback, assessment