By Abby Resiner, Department of Music
For most teaching assistants, marking student assignments is an important duty. Through my experience as teaching assistant, I have observed several students do not engage with feedback provided on assignments. An important part of learning is to review feedback on assignments and learn from mistakes for future assignments. When assigned to a course, sometimes teaching assistants are unaware of how to give students effective and engaging comments. It is important to give engaging feedback to students so teaching assistants are not wasting time writing comments the student does not understand. This article will explore the problems of student engagement with feedback and how teaching assistants can apply effective feedback strategies.
Identifying Problems with Feedback
One of the main reasons students do not engage with feedback is because they do not think the feedback is relevant and the student does not understand it. Most feedback in the social sciences is delivered via written comments that the student can misinterpret. Students may not engage with feedback is because they do not see the link between one topic in class and the next topic. The student does not think he/she needs to apply the feedback to the next topic. A t problem associated with feedback is the student understanding criteria. Unless the student fully understands the assignment criteria, he/she cannot decode the feedback. Feedback is understood in reference to an assignment in which a student is compared to an ideal performance determined by assessment criteria. Unless the student fully understands the assessment criteria, the feedback will not be effective for them (Handley and Williams 96).
Effective Student Engagement with Feedback
Flukiger and others state characteristics of effective written feedback, “Effective formative feedback must be specific, simple, descriptive, and focused on the task. This allows learners to set clear expectations of themselves and to make decisions that influence their own successes” (Flukiger et al., 136). In addition to written feedback, they suggest feedback involves multiple aspects, “For maximum benefit, feedback must focus on more than one aspect of learning; thus formative feedback is given on the product (assignment or performance), on the process (how it’s done), and on the progress (improvement over time) of the learning” (Flukiger et al., 136).
In addition to written feedback, meetings between student and teacher are an effective way to engage students in feedback. Amy Cramp performed a study analyzing meetings between student and teacher after students received feedback on an assignment. Four themes arose from the study: “better understanding of study and assessment skills…reading feedback as specific and generic…interpreting feedback…and developing academic identities” (Cramp 117-120). By reading the feedback out loud to the student, the student was able to understand the relationship between the feedback and its application to other assignments and their larger academic career. Students were also able to understand the meaning of the comments without misinterpretation and the meeting allowed the student to react to the feedback openly and honestly (Cramp 117-120).
I have identified the common problems associated with students and their ability to engage with feedback on assignments. Through clear language and meeting with the student effective engagement with feedback can be achieved. Meetings with every student may not be a viable solution in a large class. These meeting suggestions may offer a way to engage students with feedback in an office hour. Through written and verbal feedback, I have offered an effective way to engage students with feedback.
Bibliography
Cramp, Amy. “Developing First-year Engagement with Written Feedback.” Active Learning in Higher Education 12 no. 2 (2011): 113-124.
Fluckiger, Jarene, et al. “Formative Feedback: Involving Students as Partners in Assessment to Enhance Learning.” College Teaching 58 (2010): 136-140.
Handley, Karen, and Lindsay Williams. “From Copying to Learning: Using Exemplars to Engage
Students with Assessment Criteria and Feedback.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 36 no. 1 (2011): 95-108.