tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-652950132925204088.post7371104745029773977..comments2024-03-25T17:34:35.600+11:00Comments on Sarah Stewart: Assessment and student feedbackSarah Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00480597227427423793noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-652950132925204088.post-27086677734090453662009-09-21T09:44:32.237+10:002009-09-21T09:44:32.237+10:00Thank you all for your comments - I've really ...Thank you all for your comments - I've really enjoyed reading this discussion.<br /><br />Claire: one of the things I have done at postgraduate level is be a lot more flexible with my marking, so if it looks like a person is 'failing', I give feedback and tell her to re-submit. But life gets difficult when you take that approach when you have a lot of students and strict time frames.<br /><br />Carolyn: I think workload is a big issues. We talk about all these strategies which we know enhances student learning but it is not so easy, particularly in a busy undergraduate program. But then again, I think we have to get back to the question about whether we over-assess students, thus compounding our workload.<br /><br />@Pam Good point Pam. I must admit there have probably been times when I haven't been as constructive in my feedback as I could be. The problem for the lecturer is that marking heaps of essays etc can be boring so keeping up my interest and enthusiasm to make my feedback useful can be challenging at times. How would you address that issue? <br /><br />@Ray..again...great comments. I think what you have said would help deal with my problem of finding marking boring...if I had to give feedback 'little and often' I would find it more manageable than having to mark big pieces of work in one hit. What do you think?Sarah Stewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00480597227427423793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-652950132925204088.post-23056289859073709332009-09-20T02:38:40.066+10:002009-09-20T02:38:40.066+10:00Hi, Sarah,
Following with interest this piece on ...Hi, Sarah,<br /><br />Following with interest this piece on 'Assessment and student feedback'. Of the two papers you quote, I feel that the Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick paper is much further 'on the ball' than the other. For instance I agree with their 7th point on page 7 that the feedback FROM students should inform future teacher input.<br /><br />However, two point I did not see:<br />a) students appreciate regular feedback - they say such things as "I really feel that my tutor cares about my progress." <br />b) early intervention in the form of feedback to the student prevents wasting time by going down blind alleys.<br /><br />One book I highly recommend is W J Popham's 'Transformative Assessment' - it really is an eye-opener to those (like me) who thought that they knew all about formative assessment!<br /><br />BW<br />Ray TRay Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03654892229937491921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-652950132925204088.post-47154527402447719292009-09-19T11:44:44.943+10:002009-09-19T11:44:44.943+10:00Claire, I really like your idea of giving feedback...Claire, I really like your idea of giving feedback on a number of assignments and allowing the students to choose one for marking, giving them the opportunity to improve on the original. I think this type of marking would work well for the type of assignment I am looking at, a learning contract. The big issue I think is how to do this but keep it manageable as a workload issue. Have you used this type of feedback in your teaching and if so is it manageable in terms of workload, both for you and the students?Carolynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02464510128406258242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-652950132925204088.post-62634590628640611662009-09-19T01:25:58.400+10:002009-09-19T01:25:58.400+10:00Sarah,
I think that when there is a grade attache...Sarah,<br /><br />I think that when there is a grade attached to an assessment, students tend to tune out the constructive feedback given by the instructor. A student's first response is "what did I get?" (on the assessment), not "I wonder what suggestions the instructor had to improve my work?" If you remove the grade, then students are more likely to want to know what they did well and what they need to improve. <br /><br />Students are also more likely to really take in the feedback when it is timely--feedback on an assignment that was completed 2 weeks ago has less of an impact than feedback delivered within a day or two of completion. <br /><br />Of course you can't avoid grades forever (or can you...), but one option is to provide quick feedback, but no grade, on a number of assignments and then ask the student to choose one of those assignments--to which they've made improvements--to submit for a grade. Have them hand in the original with your comments and the 'new and improved' version. <br /><br />Do you think this kind of approach would work with the courses that you teach?<br /><br />Thanks for getting me to think more deeply about this issue!Claire Thompsonhttp://cthompson.edublogs.orgnoreply@blogger.com