The impact of written feedback to improve students’ performance

by Dr Dev Acharya

Feedback is a vital part of the learning process that helps to improve students’ performance as they progress through their studies (Earl, 2003). It is useful for reflective learning and to process the knowledge that students already have. The practice of providing feedback should be positive, or at least neutral, but not negative to discourage the students. Providing timely and specific feedback are crucial to improve students’ future learning (Race, 2001). However, it is equally important for students to understand the feedback and to self-assess their abilities in responding them (Sadler, 2010). HEI (Higher Education Institution) tutors spend a significant amount of time providing feedback to students’ work, however engaging them with this feedback is still a challenging task for many of us (Sambell, 2011). 

The feedback form may be a post-facto sheet in many of the HEIs (Higher Education Institutes) which is often considered as a product delivered by the teachers at the end of the session (Price et al., 2011). There may be occasions when these forms arrive too late to help the students to improve their performance. In this instance, students are provided with a summary of their work based on certain measurement criteria, and this may hinder them from engaging with further developmental aspects of their knowledge and skills. In 2017, I conducted a small research project among year one undergraduate students looking at the impact of tutors’ external feedback into students’ internal feedback to self-regulate students’ learning processes. This was a mixed methods research design (Creswell, 1999) that developed nine quantitative questionnaires and an open-ended qualitative questionnaire to obtain more in-depth findings (Murtagh and Baker, 2009; Spiller, 2009). In the quantitative questionnaires I identified the following benefits: 1. understand my grade. 2. appreciate how well I am progressing. 3. realise where I went wrong. 4. know specific course content. 5. develop my intellectual skills (e.g., problem solving and analysis). 6. improve my academic writing skills (e.g., referencing). 7. understand the subsequent assignment(s). 8. bring clarity about what is needed to improve. 9. feel more confident in my future work. The responses were obtained in five Likert scale rankings, ranging from 1 being non effective to 5 being highly effective. The information received in semester 1 was compared to observe the improvement in semester 2 with the same cohort of students. The students were mainly asked about their views on feedback for assignments and whether it helped them to improve their next assignment grades.

A majority of the students responded that the ‘feedback was helpful to understand why they obtained certain marks for their assignment’. They said that ‘it developed their academic writing skills and ability to be confident about the future work’. Most of them agreed that ‘the feedback is effective to appreciate their performance and how to make future improvements’. 

Some quotes from participants included:

It helped me see where I was going wrong. My grades have all been higher than this one after this feedback.

It encourages the practice of mock papers and widening the research of the subject (personally). Presentation feedback encourages us to study education handbook skills further. 

Makes me think and re-look at my work especially referencing before submitting my work.

In a question to identify an example of feedback which the students believe is useful they responded; 

The different colours (e.g., red) spelling, correctness and where to provide more detail. 

The evidence and coherent argument feedback points at good aspects of my argument, then expanding to ‘linking these two aspects with theory and references […] improved your marking’’. This helped to visualise the problem and I avoided making the mistake again.

In another question about improving student work and what support the students needed they responded;

Better time management, better source gathering, more structure.

Revising sentence breaks, solidifying Harvard referencing in my head. Increase my ability to compare sources in a systematic manner.

Mock questions made up by lecturer. Further exploration on how to get higher marks (as full as possible) as targets.

Resources on how to evaluate. More help on referencing (recap on how to reference). 

The outcome of this study suggests that marking and feedback are the sources of self-motivation for many of the students in HEIs. Feedback is one of the most effective influences on student learning and achievement (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). I engage my students in one-to-one and written/verbal feedback to bring clarity about the feedback and comments they receive-this makes a difference to their learning and facilitates improvement. 

References

• Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education. 5 (1), 7-74.
• Creswell, J.W., (1999) Mixed-method research: Introduction and application. Handbook of educational policy, pp.455-472.
• Earl, L. (2003). Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximise student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. 
• Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.
• Murtagh, L. and Baker, N., (2009) Feedback to Feed Forward: Student Response to Tutors’ Written Comments on Assignments. Practitioner research in higher education, 3(1), pp.20-28.
• Price, M., Handley, K. and Millar, J. (2011). Feedback: focusing attention on engagement. Studies in Higher Education. First published on 2 February 2011 (iFirst).
• Race P (2001) Using feedback to help students to learn. The Higher Education Academy. https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/using_feedback_1568036930.pdf (Accessed 15 Feb 2023).
• Sadler, D.R. (2010). Beyond feedback: developing student capability in complex appraisal. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 35 (5), 535-550.
• Sambell, K. (2011). Rethinking feedback in Higher Education: an assessment for learning perspectives. Bristol: HEA Subject Centre for Education. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/uploads/production/document/path/2/2729/RethinkingFeedbackInHigherEducation.pdf(Accessed 25 Jan 2023). 

About the author

Dr Dev Acharya is a Senior Lecturer for Public Health at the University of Wolverhampton, England.