Beyond teacher comments: Designing for student uptake of feedback

1. Beyond teacher comments:
Designing for student uptake of
feedback
Professor David Carless,
@CarlessDavid
Faculty of Education,
CETL Feedback Series, HKU,
March 12, 2019
The University of Hong Kong

2. Overview
1. From telling to student involvement
2. Meeting students’ needs
3. Flipping feedback sequences
4. Designs for large classes
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3. Feedback is for students
Students’ needs and preferences should be
prioritized
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4. Student growth
What are we hoping to achieve through
feedback processes?
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5. Key aim of feedback processes
To enhance student
ability to self-monitor
their work in
progress
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6. The University of Hong Kong

7. Feedback challenges
Too much feedback as telling
Lack of engagement with feedback
Lack of strategies for using feedback
The way modules/feedback are organized
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8. Limits of Feedback as telling
“Learners do not always
learn much purely from
being told, even when
they are told repeatedly in
the kindest possible way”
(Sadler, 2015, p. 16)
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9. Student frustrations
Feedback often comes at the end of teaching
sequences and it is too late for students to act
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10. Survey evidence
Students consistently express
dissatisfaction with university feedback
practices
SLEQ SETL
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11. 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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12. Feedback graveyards
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13. DEFINING FEEDBACK
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14. Feedback as information
Information about performance or
understanding (Hattie & Timperley, 2007)
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15. Feedback as interaction
All dialogue to support learning in both
formal and informal situations
(Askew & Lodge, 2000)
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16. Feedback as action
Learners making sense of comments &
using them for improvement (Boud & Molloy,
2013; Carless & Boud, 2018)
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17. Closing feedback loops
It’s only feedback
if students take
some action
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18. Social constructivism
Action on feedback is developed through
learner agency, dialogue & co-construction
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19. Information  action
(Winstone & Carless, 2019)
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20. The University of Hong Kong

21. RESEARCH BASE
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22. Differing perceptions
Study 1. Questionnaire data from 460 staff &
1740 students
Teachers thought their feedback was more
useful than students did (Carless, 2006)
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23. Sustainable feedback
Study 2. Interviews with 10 award-winning
teachers from 10 different Faculties
Sustainable feedback:
Enhancing student role to generate & use
feedback (Carless et al. 2011)
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24. Sustainable feedback defined
Activities in which students generate & use
feedback from peers, self or others as part
of self-regulation (Carless, 2013)
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25. 5-year longitudinal inquiry
Study 3. Longitudinal tracking of four
students’ experiences of feedback
(Carless, 2018)
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26. FOCUS ON THE STUDENTS
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27. Teacher-centred feedback
Too much feedback is not aligned with
students’ needs and interests
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28. Helping Students
“Teachers could do more to identify
students’ needs and find out how they can
help us”. (Philippa, year 5)
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29. Feedback for better grades
The main student consideration is the grade
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30. Centrality of grades
“Teachers don’t see grades as being as
important as students do.” (Philippa, year 5)
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31. Flipped feedback
Inverting the sequence of guidance
Students want more support during the
assessment process … & less at its end
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32. Timing of critique
“I welcome critical feedback when I can use
it to improve my grade but critical feedback
at the end is no use” (Candice, year 5)
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33. FEEDBACK LITERACY
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34. Defining student feedback literacy
Understandings, capacities & dispositions
needed to use feedback for improvement
(Carless & Boud, 2018).
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35. Student feedback literacy
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Making
Judgments
Appreciating
Feedback
Managing
Affect
Taking Action
(Carless & Boud, 2018)

36. Teacher role
Curriculum & assessment design to promote
generating and using feedback
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37. Feedback designs
Task 1  feedback  interlinked task 2
Position students as active feedback
seekers & users
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38. Designs for large classes
• Peer tutoring
• Exemplars as guidance
• Automated feedback e.g. quizzes
• Group projects
• Integrated sequences of rich tasks
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39. TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED
FEEDBACK STRATEGIES
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40. Technology & feedback
Pros: Immediacy, attractiveness,
convenience, innovativeness
Cons: Failure to implement sound
feedback designs
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41. Screencast feedback
Digital recording of users’ screen combined
with voice narration
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42. Audio & Video feedback
Rapport
Nuance
Personalisation
Uptake & impact?
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43. Peer video feedback
Peer-to-peer video feedback
delivered via Facebook
Hung (2016)
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44. Composing peer feedback
Providing feedback more cognitively engaging
than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)
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45. Implications
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46. Shifts in priorities
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Increase Decrease
Feedback on students’ needs Feedback on teachers’ priorities
Within module guidance Terminal comments
Comments on first task Comments on final task
Feedback for first years Feedback for final year

47. Use resources wisely
Reduce teacher commentary at times when
it cannot reasonably be taken up (Boud &
Molloy, 2013)
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48. (Wiliam, 2015)
https://www.dylanwiliamcenter.com/feedback-for
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“Feedback should
be more work for
the recipient than
the donor”

49. Key recommendations
Focus on learners’ needs
Flip feedback processes
Design for student uptake
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50. QUESTIONS
&
COMMENTS
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51. References
Askew, S., & Lodge, C. (2000). Gifts, ping-pong and loops - linking feedback and learning. In S.
Askew (Ed.), Feedback for Learning (pp.1-18). London: Routledge Falmer.
Boud, D. & Molloy, E. (2013). Rethinking models of feedback for learning: The challenge of design.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 698-712.
Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2),
219-233.
Carless, D. (2013). Sustainable feedback and the development of student self-evaluative capacities.
In S. Merry, M. Price, D. Carless & M.. Taras, (Eds.), Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher
Education. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2015). Excellence in University Assessment: Learning from award-winning practice.
London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2018). Feedback loops and the longer-term: Towards feedback spirals. Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1531108
Carless, D. & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of
feedback. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354.
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52. References (continued)
Carless, D., Salter, D., Yang, M. & Lam, J. (2011). Developing sustainable feedback practices.
Studies in Higher Education, 36(4), 395-407.
Crook, C., Gross, H. & Dymott, R. (2006). Assessment relationships in higher education: The tension
of process and practice. British Educational Research Journal, 32(1), 95-114.
Hung, S.-T. A. (2016). Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video technology.
Computers & Education, 98, 90-101.
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.
Nicol, D., Thomson, A. & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: A
peer review perspective. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), 102-122.
Sadler, D. R. (2010). Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in complex appraisal.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), 535-550.
Sadler, D.R. (2015). Backwards assessment explanations: Implications for teaching and assessment
practice. In D. Lebler et al. (Eds.), Assessment in music education: From policy to practice (pp.9-
19). Cham: Springer.
Winstone, N. & Carless, D. (2019, in press). Designing effective feedback processes in higher
education: A learning-focused approach. London: Routledge.
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53. THANK YOU
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