Providing feedback
Introduction
The central role of feedback in student learning is well recognised. Students use feedback to address the following questions:
* How well have I performed?
* In what areas am I doing well, and where might I improve?
* How might I improve?
A grade alone is rarely sufficient. Grades and scores can answer the first question, as they provide a measure of performance. And these are necessary, as measurement is one of the purposes of assessment [see also: Principles of assessment]. However, students also need opportunities to identify specific strengths and weaknesses, and insight into what they need to learn and how they might improve their performance on future tasks.
From exams you don’t get your feedback - you do that exam, and it goes off, and it gets marked, and you get the mark back, and that’s it. You’re just relieved that you passed, or whatever, and that’s it. So you don’t actually find out, you know, what you did well in, what you didn’t do so well in, unless you ask. [postgraduate student describing undergraduate examinations]
Assessment in the biological sciences is rarely confined to end-of-semester examinations, however. The staff and students we interviewed described a wide variety of assessment types [see also: Assessment types] and combinations [see also: Curriculum planning and review]. Courses typically include in-semester assessment tasks, and many of these are designed to provide students with specific feedback on their learning.
The feedback that you get after doing an assignment. Rather than just going, “Here’s your assignment”, handing it back, “That’s your mark, bad luck for you”, they actually actively do things, like they put the stuff up on the board so you can see how to improve ... [undergraduate student describing the type of feedback most valued]
We get feedback on some assignments and on most of our exams. So you can see what areas that you haven’t been strong in and talk with your lecturer or just study harder for the next section. [honours students describing assessment in earlier year levels]
In addition, tutorials and practical classes provide opportunities for discussion with peers and staff, and are therefore important in providing feedback.
However, providing meaningful, individual feedback to large groups of students in a timely manner with limited resources remains one of the key issues facing academic staff.
If you’re talking big classes, just the sheer time involved in giving individual students individual feedback on their performance is a great challenge [academic]
