Feedback is inevitable in any assessed course and is crucial to get it right; misguided feedback practices may be detrimental to learning in both past assessments and upcoming assessments. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), in their work, “Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice”, present a set of seven principles of what good feedback should look like. The principal idea underlying the paper is that higher education institutes should build on students’ ability to self-assess (which they are doing anyway) – consequently, educators can reorientate the student-assessment relationship from one of reaction to one of proactive participation. While the article focuses primarily on formative assessment, the connotations it has on summative assessments are both natural and logical. The seven principles, along with their intended consequences are outlined in the visualisation below:
Reflecting on the seven principles in my current teaching context, I can consider both practices that are being currently done (so as to be aware of practices that should be kept, yet with the intention of further improvement) and practices that should be encouraged, which are currently not practised. Below are some highlights and examples that stand out in particular relevance to the course.
Regarding a feedback practice that should be encouraged to continue, there are currently good practices concerning clarifying to students what a good performance is (principle 1). For example, students are given explicit outlines of learning outcomes, bullet points that relate to each learning outcome (so to make the learning outcomes more relevant), and example assessments from the past (see Orsmond, Merry, & Reiling, 2002 for further details on the use of exemplar) as well as examples of good writing published in peer-reviewed journals. Where relevant, some of the learning outcome bullet points are reiterated in the feedback itself, so that students are reminded of what they were assessed on while they read their feedback. Once all the marking is concluded, I usually open up an opportunity for students to discuss the feedback in class – of course, for students who would like a 1:1 chat, this is also possible. It is the expectation that such practice would feed into future assessments, in effect, encouraging a feedforwarding process in learning. Such practices also touch upon principles 3, 4, 6, and 7.
However, I am aware that principle 2, namely asking for students to self-assess, is lacking in my current teaching practices. Cowan (2006) outlines methods that can be done. In the context of my teaching, I can bring in a past example assessment and ask the students to mark that work. This way, I am achieving the execution of principle 1 simultaneously.
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Reference
Cowan, J., 2006. On becoming an innovative university teacher: Reflection in action: Reflection in action. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Nicol, D.J. and Macfarlane‐Dick, D., 2006. Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in higher education, 31(2), pp.199-218.
Orsmond, P., Merry, S. and Reiling, K., 2002. The use of exemplars and formative feedback when using student derived marking criteria in peer and self-assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 27(4), pp.309-323.