Responding to and acting on feedback
To what extent in your course is received feedback attended to, compared with that of others, and acted upon by students?
Why?
- If received feedback is not read or understood, it has no value. To learn from received feedback one has to reflect on it, compare it against one’s own work and ultimately change one’s understanding about that work, and ideally, have opportunities to make improvements in the work.
- The most important value of feedback received, according to research, is that it alerts students to ‘blind spots’ in their own thinking and it gives them other perspectives
- Comparing your work with feedback from multiple sources to decide which applies and is worth acting on multiplies the value of received feedback
- Evaluating what is worth paying attention to in feedback received from multiple sources is a skill required in workplace and professional settings
How
- Have learners respond to received feedback e.g. put it in their own words, say what it means to them or to identify inconsistencies if there are multiple sources
- Ask students to find one or two examples of feedback comments that they found useful and explain how these might help them in future assignments
- When students submit their next assignment ask them to write a short account of how they have used the earlier feedback
- Return assignments with feedback in tutorials (teacher or peer) and get student groups to discuss the feedback and create an action plan about how they will improve future work