The University of Hong Kong

Integrating the development

of student and staff
feedback literacy
@CarlessDavid
University of Hong Kong
June 18, 2018
University of Surrey
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Overview

1. Feedback potentials & challenges

2. Student feedback literacy

3. Teacher feedback literacy

4. Challenges & implications

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Teaching effects 10/138

(Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning. London: Routledge.)

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Defining feedback
A process in which learners make sense of
comments & use them for enhancement
purposes.

(Carless & Boud, 2018)

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“The only thing that

matters is what the
student does with
the feedback”

(Wiliam, 2016)
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Feedback is for students

Students’ needs and preferences should be
prioritized
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Feedback literacy
Co-ordinated staff & student feedback literacy
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Social constructivism
Feedback literacy is developed through
agency, dialogue & co-construction
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FEEDBACK CHALLENGES
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Feedback is emotional
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Feedback is relational
Needing communication

And healing of uneasy relationships

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Student feedback challenges

Difficulties in decoding feedback

Lack of engagement with feedback

Lack of strategies for using feedback

The way feedback is organized

(Evans, 2013; Winstone et al., 2017)

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Differing perceptions
Questionnaire data from 460 staff & 1740
students

Teachers thought their feedback was more

useful than students did (Carless, 2006)
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Feedback as telling is overrated

“Learning from
being told is
flawed as a
general strategy”

(Sadler, 2010, p.
548)
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PLACING STUDENTS
CENTRE STAGE
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5-year longitudinal inquiry

Longitudinal inquiry into four undergraduate
students’ experiences of feedback

Year 1 2 3 4 5
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Monologue more than dialogue

“Feedback is usually one-way. I am not

going to respond to end-of-module
feedback”.
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Students’ needs
“To really understand students’ needs is a
long-term process. To promote dialogue,
teachers could do more to find out how they
can help us”.
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Student preferences
Find out what students want & prefer
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Dialogue
“Teachers could tell us more about the
process of feedback & share which criteria
are significant”
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Students need high grades

“Teachers need to appreciate how important
grades are to us”
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STUDENT FEEDBACK
LITERACY
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Defining feedback literacy

Understandings, capacities and dispositions
needed to make sense of comments and
use them for enhancement purposes
(Carless & Boud, 2018).
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Student feedback literacy

Appreciating Making Managing

Feedback Judgments Affect

Taking Action

(Carless & Boud, 2018)

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Teacher role
Curriculum & assessment design to promote
generating and using feedback
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Designing for uptake

Potential action on feedback influenced by
how assessment is designed
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Two key enabling activities

Peer feedback

Discussing exemplars
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Teacher scaffolding
Guidance

Modelling

Coaching
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TEACHER FEEDBACK
LITERACY
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First attempt
• Feedback to develop student self-
regulation;
• Strategies to support students in
generating feedback;
• Attentiveness to relational & affective
elements
(Xu & Carless, 2017)
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Parallelism attempt
Supports Enables Shows
appreciation of making of sensitivity
feedback judgments to affect

Promotes action

After Carless & Boud (2018)

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Teacher feedback literacy

Prioritizes students’ needs

Organises Sensitive to affect

dialogues

Designs for student action

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TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED
STRATEGIES
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Learning Management Systems

Storing and accessing feedback comments

Prompting students to act on prior feedback

(before receiving more feedback)
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FEATS
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Audio & Video feedback

Rapport
Nuance
Personalisation

Monologue or Dialogue?
Time saver?
Student response?
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Screencast feedback
Digital recording of users’ screen combined
with voice narration
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Peer video feedback

Peer-to-peer video feedback
delivered via Facebook

Hung (2016)
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IMPLICATIONS FOR
PRACTICE
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Interactive coversheet
Invite students to state what feedback they
want (Bloxham & Campbell, 2010)
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Interactive coversheet designs

1. The strengths are …

2. The aspects for development are …

3. I would like feedback on …

(Adapted from Bloxham & Campbell, 2010)

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Coversheet follow through

State the previous feedback you are using
to inform this assignment
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Feedback designs
Task 1  feedback  interlinked task 2

Position students as active feedback

seekers & users (Boud & Molloy, 2013)
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Shifts in priorities
Increase Decrease

Feedback on students’ Feedback on teachers’ priorities

preferences

Within module guidance Unidirectional comments at end

Comments on first task Comments on final task

Feedback for first year students Feedback for final year students
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Use resources wisely

Reduce teacher commentary at times when
it cannot reasonably be taken up (Boud &
Molloy, 2013)
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
TEACHER CHANGE
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When and how do teachers in HE

change their (feedback) practice?
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Developing staff feedback literacy

Perceiving a need to change

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Pressure or support
Having some impetus for change
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Belief
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Staff development
Dialogue & communication

Communities of practice

Incentives
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References

Bloxham, S. & Campbell. L. (2010). Generating dialogue in assessment

feedback: Exploring the use of interactive cover sheets. Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(3), 291-300.
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. (2015). Excellence in University Assessment: Learning from award-
winning practice. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. and 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.
Evans, C. (2013). Making sense of assessment feedback in higher education.
Review of Educational Research, 83(1), 70-120.
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References (continued)
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses
relating to achievement. London: Routledge.
Hung, S.-T. A. (2016). Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video
technology. Computers & Education, 98, 90-101.
Sadler, D. R. (2010). Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in
complex appraisal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35 (5):
535-550.
Wiliam, D. (2016). The secret of effective feedback. Educational Leadership,
73(7), 10-15.
Winstone, N., R. Nash, J. Rowntree, and M. Parker. 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.
Xu, Y. & Carless, D. (2017). ‘Only true friends could be cruelly honest’:
cognitive scaffolding and social-affective support in teacher feedback
literacy. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(7), 1082-1094.
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THANK YOU
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Feedback literacy
Learners need to acquire academic
literacies to interpret complex ideas; &
capacities to act on feedback

(Sutton, 2012)
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Feedback as telling

Learning from being told is flawed as a

general strategy because the conditions for
the statements to make intimate connection
with the student work (with a view to future
work) are rarely satisfied (Sadler, 2010, p.
548)
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Composing peer feedback

Providing feedback more cognitively engaging
than receiving feedback (e.g. Nicol et al., 2014)
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Assessment literate students

Interpret assessment expectations in similar
ways to tutors (Price et al., 2012)

Understand that feedback effectiveness

depends on their level of engagement
(O’Donovan et al., 2016)