{"id":4501,"date":"2023-08-23T13:54:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T13:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/?p=4501"},"modified":"2023-08-24T13:25:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T13:25:04","slug":"feedback-of-for-as-learning-creating-a-common-way-of-thinking-and-talking-about-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/feedback-of-for-as-learning-creating-a-common-way-of-thinking-and-talking-about-feedback\/","title":{"rendered":"Feedback of\/for\/as learning: Creating a common way of thinking and talking about feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.cardiff.ac.uk\/research-staff\/forde-leavesn\">Natalie Forde-Leaves<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/people\/view\/2627538-Michael-Willett\">Dr Michael Willett<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.cardiff.ac.uk\/staff\/lloyda\">Andy Lloyd<\/a> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/about\/our-profile\/who-we-are\/education\/cardiff-learning-and-teaching-academy\">Learning and Teaching Academy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This blog shares highlights from a paper we presented at the <a href=\"https:\/\/iaea.info\/#:~:text=The%2048th%20Annual%20International%20Association%20for%20Educational%20Assessment,%E2%80%93%2029%2C%202023%20at%20the%20Jamaica%20Pegasus%20Hotel.\">International Assessment in Higher Education Conference 2023<\/a>. The paper focused on the (growing) body of literature, models and paradigms relating to <strong><em>feedback,<\/em><\/strong> and proposed a practical approach that both educators and students could use.\u00a0Our aim of the research was to create and subsequently <em>use<\/em> and <em>share<\/em> through our own educational practices, a <em>common vocabulary<\/em> in assessment and feedback practice. In doing this we adopted some existing classifications applied in the assessment field \u2013 these being:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>assessment \u2018<em>of\u2019<\/em> learning<\/li>\n<li>assessment \u2018<em>for\u2019<\/em> learning<\/li>\n<li>assessment \u2018<em>as\u2019<\/em> learning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We proposed, and will continue to drive forward, a model of conceptualising feedback that differentiates between \u2018feedback <em>of<\/em> learning, feedback <em>for<\/em> learning and feedback <em>as<\/em> learning.<\/p>\n<p>We started our presentation by conceptualising context: as readers may appreciate Cardiff University has a diverse academic landscape with a wealth of research, disciplinary and pedagogic practice expertise, and a growing base of academics undertaking teaching-related professional development activity in the form of the Advance-HE accredited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/jobs\/what-we-can-offer\/teaching-innovation-and-support\/education-fellowship-programmes\">Fellowships Programmes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite the many pockets of good practice across the institution, Cardiff University has historically adopted a largely \u2018traditional\u2019 approach to assessment, similar to many other Russell Group institutions, with an emphasis on \u2018assessment <strong><em>of<\/em><\/strong> learning\u2019 and many disciplines being \u201cexam-heavy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For many years, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/about\/facts-and-figures\/national-student-survey\">NSS results<\/a> for assessment and feedback have also been well below the mean satisfaction values of all other dimensions.<\/p>\n<p>As a group of senior academic developers with first-hand experience of academic roles, we were mindful of the significant pressures on academic time, particularly the time invested in \u2018providing\u2019 feedback, and we sought to understand:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>students\u2019 current perceptions of feedback<\/li>\n<li>the kind of feedback students desire and expect<\/li>\n<li>how staff can more effectively communicate feedback expectations and develop students\u2019 feedback literacy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Winstone et al (2022) address the issue of \u2018understanding the term feedback\u2019 in their review of the literature, acknowledging that:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u201cFeedback is a term used so frequently that it is commonly taken that there is a shared view about what it means. However, in recent years, the notion of feedback as simply the provision of information to students about their work has been substantially challenged and learning-centred views have been articulated.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our concerns rest with a \u2018shift\u2019 of feedback paradigms, as discussed in the literature from \u2018product\u2019 to \u2018process\u2019, and whether both staff and students are on the same page in their understanding.<\/p>\n<p>In an extensive review of scholarly discourse we found a multitude of \u2018purposes of feedback\u2019, depicted below:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-4502 media-4502\" class=\"image align-none\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Natalie-blog-1.png\" alt=\"Graphic of words\" width=\"584\" height=\"479\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">(Orrel, 2006; Hounsell, 2011; McLean et al, 2015; Jensen et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In addition, there are a host of models which, as Lipnevich and Panadero (2021) suggest:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\u201care proliferating and the field is missing clarity on what feedback models are available and how can they be used for the development of instructional activities, assessments, and interventions\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This need for clarity is the point of departure for this blog; not only in the feedback literature but also in terms of feedback practice.<\/p>\n<p>In the presentation we agreed with the need to disentangle assessment and feedback (Winstone &amp; Boud, 2022), and argued that \u2018feedback\u2019 should be addressed with equal emphasis and parity with assessment and not as an afterthought. As a means of gaining this equity, we proposed conceptualising feedback in the same ways as used for assessment in the literature.<\/p>\n<p>We constructed our common vocabulary, using the notions \u2018<em>of\u2019<\/em>, \u2018<em>for\u2019<\/em> and \u2018<em>as\u2019 <\/em>(Earl, 2013). This approach is relatively embedded in both assessment literature (see, for example, Chong, 2018) and in practice, see below picture commonly used in our LT Academy workshops:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-4525 media-4525\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Screenshot-2023-08-24-142056.png\" alt=\"Graph\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">(The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Ireland, 2017)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, there is <strong>little to no use of these terms in the literature in relation to feedback, <\/strong>beyond a single undergraduate thesis (Maldonado and Gafaro, 2014). We therefore propose the following tripartite model as a means of creating a simple, usable, \u2018common vocabulary\u2019 for feedback:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-4504 media-4504\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 745px;height: 400px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Natalie-blog-3.png\" alt=\"Graph cycle\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">(Forde-Leaves, Willett &amp; Lloyd, forthcoming)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our interpretations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>FoL: Feedback with the purpose of evaluating student achievement, justifying grades and positioning in relation pre-existing assessment criteria. This feedback is often \u2018produced\u2019 by the educator and \u2018provided\u2019 to the student in a one-way exchange, characterised by provision of information in relation to an immediate task.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>FfL: Feedback with the purpose of modifying learning and guiding the student as to where they may be able to improve. This feedback is often \u2018produced\u2019 by the educator and \u2018provided\u2019 to the student in a one-way exchange, but characterised by provision of information and explanations for understanding and improvement in relation to both an immediate task and with applicability to future assessment tasks within the HEI.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>FaL: Feedback with the ultimate purpose of building evaluative judgement, self regulation, metacognition and reflection skills. This feedback is often internal to the student but can also be \u2018dialogic\u2019, engaging educators, the student, peers, personal tutors etc in a multi-directional exchange, characterised by new information from alternative perspectives in relation to tasks both within and beyond the reach of higher education<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We do not see these three domains as mutually exclusive, but rather as conceptualising the multiple roles and duties that feedback fulfils in various contexts.<\/p>\n<p>We applied our model to an empirical data set with the following Research Questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Can we better understand students&#8217; perceptions of feedback using such a model?<\/li>\n<li>Using this approach, have student perceptions of feedback changed over time?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The data set comprised secondary qualitative data from a longitudinal mixed-methods study. We analysed student qualitive responses from focus groups held with undergraduate students across a range of disciplines both pre and post covid (2019: n= 5 focus groups (10 participants) and 2022: n= 6 focus groups (46 participants). We also analysed qualitive free text responses from a pre-covid TESTA (\u2018Transforming the experience of students in assessment survey (n=200)<\/p>\n<p>Informed by our literature review we developed the following coding mechanism to determine whether each data extract showed a perception of feedback as \u2018of\u2019, \u2018for\u2019, or \u2018as\u2019 learning:<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 305px\" width=\"1251\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"192\"><strong>Feedback OF<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>learning (FoL) to ASSURE:<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"192\"><strong>Feedback FOR<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>learning (FfL) to ENABLE:<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"192\"><strong>Feedback AS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>learning (FaL) to BUILD:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"192\">Correction<br \/>\nConfirmation<br \/>\nRating\/Scoring<br \/>\nAppraisal Information Errors<br \/>\nEffort Telling Treatment<br \/>\nCostly commodity<br \/>\nCommand Information<br \/>\nPrescription<br \/>\nConsumer good<\/td>\n<td width=\"192\">Diagnosis<br \/>\nRaising Achievement<br \/>\nAccelerating Achievement<br \/>\nDebugging Close the gap<br \/>\nTeacher utility Learning Guiding<br \/>\nDeveloping understanding Learner tool Teaching tool<\/td>\n<td width=\"192\">Motivation &amp; Interest<br \/>\nDialogue &amp; Interaction<br \/>\nConnoisseurship Goal orientated<br \/>\nSelf assessment<br \/>\nDialogue<br \/>\nMotivation Ideas Opening up a different perspective Coaching<br \/>\nDialogue Scaffolding<br \/>\nDialogue<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Examples of data coding are shown below. Carl and Dana (all names are anonymised) both provided pre-Covid perspectives of feedback as limited comments on submitted work that did not engage in any dialogic meaningful partnership:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carl: \u201cEach paragraph as good. Good, good, good. That&#8217;s all the feedback I got was just good. There was <strong>no structural feedback<\/strong>, no big comment at the end saying ah you did this well, you could improve by doing this, this is where you went slightly wrong. There was <strong>no guidance <\/strong>at all. The feedback was <strong>completely useless.\u201d (FoL)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Dana: The feedback that we get I think is quite, very <strong>like \u2018you\u2019 and \u2018us<\/strong>\u2019 that kind of thing <strong>(FoL)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In moving towards feedback of a more formative nature, Amy explained how FfL was provided on a relatively inconsistent basis through the submission of draft work, whereas Dana expressed a desire for more external sources of feedback, and opportunities for students to internalise standards, self-assess and self-regulate their learning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amy: I&#8217;ve given one of my lectures <strong>a draft <\/strong>before and they read it and gave me comments, which was very valuable, <strong>(FfL<\/strong>) but obviously if they\u2019ve got 150 students, they can&#8217;t do that.<\/li>\n<li>it would be good to see <strong>other people&#8217;s work <\/strong>and maybe how they done something, maybe you could <strong>learn from them<\/strong> Maybe if they&#8217;re doing slightly better than you, maybe you say, \u2018oh wow that\u2019s good\u2019 or like knowing where they are (<strong>FaL)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the post-Covid focus groups we saw focus group comments shifting from perceptions of feedback as \u2018Telling to expand but <u>no explanation<\/u>\u00a0as to how or giving examples\u2019 <strong>(FoL) <\/strong>to \u2018What was done well \u2013 but what can be <u>done better<\/u><strong>&#8216; (FfL)<\/strong> and more idealistically from a dialogic perspective as \u2018two way traffic \u2013 students and staff <u>talking to each other<\/u><strong>&#8216; (FaL).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The results are summarised the two charts below. Chart 1 shows how the more negative perceptions of feedback were largely oriented to FoL, whilst more positive perceptions of feedback were in the FfL and FaL domains. Interestingly, the data also shows differences between the pre-Covid and post-Covid groups, shown in Chart 2, with post-Covid perceptions being more orientated to a desire for more FfL and FaL:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-4505 media-4505\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Natalie-blog-4.png\" alt=\"Graph\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"post-4506 media-4506\" class=\"image align-none\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Natalie-blog-5.png\" alt=\"Graph\" width=\"1042\" height=\"319\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>This data suggests there will be an enduring problem of \u2018talking at cross purposes\u2019 if educators fail to understand which domains of feedback students are expecting and anticipating at various points in their student journey. We suggest feedback literacy can be enhanced if both educators and students acknowledge the three domains of feedback and use these as a way of thinking about and speaking about feedback in educational exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>On reflection and having had some valuable feedback at the International Assessment conference we do acknowledge the limitations of this tripartite model as being relatively simplistic, with room for more detailed conceptualisations of the three terms. At the conference we also discussed the limitations of secondary data with inconsistencies in the number of students and disciplines sampled. To this end, we suggest a more sophisticated longitudinal study utilizing focus groups and questionnaires and a larger sample size.<\/p>\n<p>But overall it was a fantastic experience presenting our work and we are hopefully submitting a paper in October to a journal! If you are interested in using this model with your students or collaborating on this study, please do get in touch!<\/p>\n<p><strong>To cite this blog please use the reference below:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Forde-Leaves, N., Willett, M., Lloyd, A. (2023) Feedback OF\/FOR\/AS learning: Creating a common way of thinking and talking about feedback? Cardiff University Blog. Available at: https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/2023\/08\/23\/feedback-of-for-as-learning-creating-a-common-way-of-thinking-and-talking-about-feedback\/<\/p>\n<h2>References:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>BARRAG\u00c1N MALDONADO, C. D. &amp; CONDE\u00a0G\u00c1FARO, B. L. 2014. First steps towards change an approach to English assessment purposes, types of assessment and washback in the Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>\u200bCHONG, S. W. 2018. Three paradigms of classroom assessment: Implications for written feedback research. Language Assessment Quarterly, 15, 330-347.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>HOUNSELL, D. 2007. Towards more sustainable feedback to students.\u00a0Rethinking assessment in higher education.\u00a0Routledge.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>JENSEN, L. X., BEARMAN, M. &amp; BOUD, D. 2021. Understanding feedback in online learning\u2013A critical review and metaphor analysis.\u00a0Computers &amp; Education,\u00a0173,\u00a0104271.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>Lipnevich, A. A. and E. Panadero (2021). &#8220;A review of feedback models and theories: Descriptions, definitions, and conclusions.&#8221;\u00a0Frontiers in Education: 481.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. (2017, March 30). Expanding our Understanding of Assessment and Feedback in Irish Higher Education. Retrieved from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachingandlearning.ie\/publication\/expanding-our-understanding-of-assessment-and-feedback-in-irish-higher-education\/\">https:\/\/www.teachingandlearning.ie\/publication\/expanding-our-understanding-of-assessment-and-feedback-in-irish-higher-education\/<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>ORRELL, J. 2006. Feedback on learning achievement: rhetoric and reality.\u00a0Teaching in higher education,\u00a011,\u00a0441-456.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>Winstone, N.E. and Boud, D., 2022. The need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education.\u00a0Studies in higher education,\u00a047(3), pp.656-667.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>YU, S., YUAN, K. &amp; WU, P. 2023. Revisiting the conceptualizations of feedback in second language writing: a metaphor analysis approach.\u00a0Journal of Second Language Writing,\u00a059,\u00a0100961.\u200b<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Natalie Forde-Leaves, Dr Michael Willett and Andy Lloyd from the Learning and Teaching Academy.","protected":false},"author":6921,"featured_media":4512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[956,1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assessment-and-feedback","category-uncategorized"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":4501,"cy":4509},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KqgK-1aB","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/286\/2023\/08\/Untitled-design-34.png","pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4526,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions\/4526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/LTAcademy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}