by Roman Taraban (Texas Tech University)

The saying “Mind the Gap” originated in 1969 to warn riders on London subways of the gap between the platform and subway car. Since then, it has been broadly applied to situations in which there may be something missing or lacking between where you are and where you want to be. The cautionary message sounded loudly this semester when I realized that my undergraduate students were not particularly interested in the constructive feedback they were receiving on their bi-weekly formative evaluations over the course content, consisting of short-answer and brief essay responses. This was troubling since I was trying to promote metacognition through my feedback. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself.

Feedback in the Classroom

Technology now affords instructors easy-to-use means of providing timely and detailed feedback on work that is submitted digitally. As one example, assignments can be sent to a website and the instructor can use tools like “Track Changes” and “New Comment” in Microsoft Word^TM to insert edits and comments in a clear and readable fashion. Beyond these basic digital tools, the coming of age of automated instructional tutors has brought with it a science of just-in-time feedback, synced with the computer’s best guess as to what a student knows at any given moment, and providing little to extensive feedback and guidance, depending on a student’s ability and prior experience (Graesser et al. 2005; Koedinger et al., 1997). In terms of technology, there are broad options available to instructors, from easy markup tools to software that will automatically grade papers. Indeed, there has not been a better time for developing and delivering effective feedback to students.

Students’ Perceptions of Feedback

The utility of feedback has been examined empirically, and has produced several practical suggestions (Koedinger et al., 1997; Shute, 2008). Students’ perceptions of feedback, though, have not been extensively researched; however, a few things are known. Weaver (2006) reported that students found several aspects of feedback to be unhelpful: when the comments provided were general or vague, when the comments did not provide guidance for rethinking or revising, when they focused on the negative, and when they were unrelated to the task. On a more positive note, Higgins and Harley (2002) conducted a survey of college students and reported the criteria that over 75% of students considered important:

• Comments that tell you what you could do to improve – 92%
• Comments that explain your mistakes – 91%
• Comments that focus on the level of critical analysis – 90%
• Comments that focus on your argument – 89%
• Comments that focus on the tutor’s overall impressions – 87%
• Comments that tell you what you have done badly – 86%
• Comments that focus on the subject matter – 82%
• Comments that correct your mistakes – 80%
• Feedback that tells you the grade – 79%
• Comments that focus on your use of supporting evidence – 79% (p. 60)

Students’ Reactions to Feedback

For several semesters I have been following Weaver’s and Higgins and Harley’s dictums, using formative evaluations in an undergraduate class that prompt critical, reflective, and evaluative thinking, for many of the questions. This semester, I dutifully edited and commented on students’ responses and electronically delivered these back to students. After the second formative evaluation, I announced to students that grades had been posted and that if they wanted more detailed comments to let me know and I would email them as I had done for the first exam. Here is the irony: only 2 out of 30 students wanted the feedback.   Assuring students that sending commented responses would not create extra work for me did not change the outcome on subsequent evaluations. Students simply did not care to hear my thoughts on their work. As it turns out, Higgins and Hartley (2002) had already anticipated my situation when they suggested that students may be extrinsically motivated to achieve a specific grade and to acquire related credentials, and may not be intrinsically motivated to reflect on their understanding of the material through the critical lens afforded by instructors’ comments.

Perceptions of Feedback – A Touchstone

Feedback may be a touchstone of metacognition. Often, to boost metacognition in the classroom, we implement tasks intended to evoke critical thinking. But what better way to increase metacognition than through developing a keener sense in students for feedback. In a way, deeply considering the teacher’s feedback requires “thinking about someone else’s thinking” in order to improve one’s own “thinking about thinking.” It appears that for too long, I have been over-estimating students’ interest in thinking critically about their own work. And as is true with the development of other cognitive abilities, several things will need to happen for change to occur. From my side, more “demandingness” may be required: to be explicit about what I want, to sensitize students to my feedback through questioning and prompting, and to scaffold the process of reflecting on feedback through directed exercises. Most importantly, the feedback needs to have carry-over value to future student work.

It is generally accepted that feedback is an essential component of learning, providing a vehicle for thinking about one’s own thinking. Logically, alerting students to their strengths and weaknesses can provide the means by which they can reflect on how they thought through a task and how to constructively modify their approach in future work. None of this will happen, though, if students fail to consider the feedback. Wojtas (1998) warned of this possibility some years ago, when he reported on the research findings in one university, suggesting that some students were concerned only with their grade and not with substantive feedback. It may be helpful to pose the same stark question to our students in order to begin to close the feedback gap: Are you only interested in your grade?

My own experience has led me to other researchers confronting similar disconcerting situations. Jollards et al. (2009) write “teachers often feel their time is wasted when it is invested in marking work and making comments on assignments, only to see work not collected in class and then left at their doorstep at the end of semester. Even if it is collected the students might not read the feedback, and even if it is read, they might not act on it. As Shute (2008) points out, “Feedback can promote learning, if it is received mindfully” (p. 172). In sum, feedback is necessary because it can give students something to think about and can prompt deeper levels of reflection. Feedback needs to be good if the gap is going to be closed. But it is also the case that good feedback alone is not enough. Metacognition is necessary if feedback is going to lead to meaningful improvement. Students must process the feedback via metacognition if they are to close the gap. (Thanks to John Draeger for these summary points!)

References

Graesser, A. C., McNamara, D., & VanLehn, K. (2005). Scaffolding deep comprehension strategies through AutoTutor and iSTART. Educational Psychologist, 40, 225–234.

Higgins, R., & Hartley, P. (2002). The Conscientious Consumer: Reconsidering the role of assessment feedback in student learning. Studies in Higher Education, 27(1), 53-64. DOI:10.1080/0307507012009936 8

Jollands, M., McCallum, N., & Bondy, J. (2009). If students want feedback why don’t they collect their assignments? 20th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, University of Adelaide, Australia.

Koedinger, K., Anderson, J. R., Hadley, W. H., Mark, M. (1997). Intelligent tutoring goes to school in the big city. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 8, 30-43.

Shute, V. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 153–189. DOI:10.3102/0034654307313795

Weaver, M. R. (2006). Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors’ written responses. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(3), 379-394. DOI:10.1080/02602930500353061

Wojtas, O. (1998). Feedback? No, just give us the answers. Times Higher Education Supplement, September 25 1998.