Rethinking Feedback

Today I am doing a presentation at the NJEDge.Net's 11th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase (at Seton Hall University) on rethinking feedback.

Instructors spend many hours giving feedback to students on paper, online and in face-to-face interactions. But feedback is often underutilized, misinterpreted and misapplied by students.

In my session, I want to talk about a hybrid model of feedback. I wil be talking about how the specificity of the message and a student's prior experiences affect the transfer of feedback. My model is a variation on what is sometimes called 360-degree feedback because it is multisource assessment where the feedback comes from all around a student. That model contrasts with the traditional performance models of "downward" feedback from teacher to student or "upward" feedback where teachers are given feedback by their students.

The 360 degree feedback model is best known for its use in human resources or organizational psychology and it has its detractors.  In the work setting, it means that feedback is provided by subordinates, peers, and supervisors, as well as self-assessment and, in some cases, feedback from external sources such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders.

It is something that I find can be used for instructor-to-student and student-to-student (peer) feedback situations.

There are three books that I revisited in preparing the presentation (though they don't appear explicitly in the presentation itself).

What Great Teachers Do Differently is a book that looks at specific things that great teachers do (that others do not do). Feedback is part of that, along with having high expectations for students that really matter, and how the great teachers filter differently than their peers.

Feedback needs to change in some ways for different kinds of assignments and based on grade levels and subject areas. A book that talks about choosing the right feedback strategy and adjusting your feedback to different kinds of learners (successful students, struggling students, English language learners...) is How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students.

A good rubrics book for higher education teachers is Introduction To Rubrics: An Assessment Tool To Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning
 Though rubrics are not the only way to give feedback, they are a good way to train students to give and receive constructive criticism. The book talks about constructing rubrics, types of rubrics, and ways to use them. It's good that this is a student-centered approach to rubric development because some teachers avoid rubric use because they see it as more work for them.

One of my main points in the my "Feedback 360" presentation is that too much feedback in classrooms comes only from a teacher to students.


Feedback 360
View more presentations from Ken Ronkowitz.

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