Seven Principles of Feedback
Our principles - good feedback should: Because of these principles you, the student, can expect:
1. Be an interactive process involving student-tutor and student-student dialogue
There should be an agreed point of reference and common starting point between students and staff as to what constitutes the purpose and use of feedback as part of a learning process. The content of this originates from the knowledge and professional expectations of the subject discipline. Determining the common starting point is an iterative process emerging out of interactive dialogue between staff, students and their peers, where all participants challenge and are open to each other’s views.
To work with a set of agreed assessment rules
To agree with staff and other students on why you will get feedback
To debate with other students
To learn from other students
To see other students learn from you
To debate with lecturers and other staff
To learn from lecturers and other staff
University staff to learn from you
Every conversation about your studies to be a type of feedback you can learn from (we are an Academic Community)
To get feedback throughout your course
To also get specific and timely formal written feedback from lecturers on your marked assessments
2. Facilitate the development of self assessment and reflection
The feedback should generate a series of questions for the student which makes them think about their learning now, and what they need to do to develop their learning in the future. This will enable them to understand the purpose of the feedback in each specific context; create the capacity to developing evaluative judgement; the ability to review their own performance against professional and academic criteria; and to think about learning strategies they need to develop in the future;
To ask yourself new questions about your learning
To ask yourself new questions about your subject
To improve your understanding of your own thoughts
To improve your ability to see the worth of other people’s work and thoughts
To improve your ability to evaluate your own work and the work of others
To become better at working in order to meet specific goals or targets
To get better at working out what types of feedback you need and working out when you need feedback
3. Clarify for students and staff, through dialogue, what good or bad performance actually is in the assignment or task.
This involves identifying and justifying the strengths and achievements of the assignment, artefact or task under discussion. This should also then lead to outlining how changes and improvements may be made, through reference to discussion around what constitutes the criteria for good performance and how the outcomes of the task have been met. Students need to be aware that feedback is a process that can take place at any time or place, and isn’t restricted to formal learning situations.
To get better at seeing where your work is good and where it needs improvement
To get better at seeing where other people’s work is good and where it needs improvement
To get better at giving people help to improve their work
To get better at accepting and using help from other people to improve your own work
To discuss how ideas like “good” and “bad” relate to marking criteria
To get and give feedback wherever you can: not just in tutorials or seminars
4. Be developmental, progressive and transferable to new learning contexts
The dialogue and understanding that emerges from the feedback should be applicable both to the current debate and also contain elements that are able to be translated to a range of current and future learning situations. As the student progresses through their learning journey they should be developing a more sustained and sophisticated approach to their learning, culminating in the expression of the graduate attributes appropriate to their level and subject specialism
Your feedback to be relevant to your course
Your feedback to be relevant to the way your wider subject area is developing
Your feedback to give you useful ideas for ways of doing future learning
Your feedback to help you get a deeper understanding of your subject
Your feedback to help you develop your overall thinking
To give and receive feedback frequently
5. Be ongoing and embedded in the learning process
Feedback isn’t simply an activity that takes place after assessment – it isn’t something that is simply done to students! Feedback that is effective and timely occurs when students know when they need it, recognise what they want it for, and know how to ask for it in a way that is appropriate to their needs.. It is multi faceted both in terms of content and format.
To learn to recognise when it would be useful for you to get feedback
To learn to recognise what type of feedback it would be useful for you to get
To learn how to ask for appropriate feedback
To recognise that there are many appropriate ways of giving feedback
6. Motivate, build esteem and confidence to support sustainable lifelong learning
Feedback needs to point out what has been done well, both in terms of the task process and the product. Feedback needs to offer ‘do-able’ actions for future learning/work, so that students are able to improve. Modules/awards need to engage students with multiple feedback opportunities.
To get, and give, praise for things that have been done well
To get ideas that will help you improve your future learning and work
To give ideas that will help other people to improve their future learning and work
To get a lot of chances to receive and give feedback in a variety of ways
To be part of an improving learning community
7. Support the development of learning groups and communities
Good feedback – as outlined in Points 1- 6 - should create the environment whereby effective and productive learning is taking place, leading to the emergence of a flourishing learning community.