contradictions in staff and student perceptions of feedback and assessment
TRANSCRIPT
The discrepancies between staff and students’ perceptions of feedback
and assessment practices
Monika PazioDuncan Mckenna
“Leave me alone, I’m trying to do my work”
The scope• Institutional research• Data collected as part of TESTA project• Identifying points of tension between staff and
students’ understanding of feedback and assessment practices across the institution
TESTA• Amended version of the original TESTA• Implemented cross-institutionally• Tool for assisting with programme review• Mandatory for 2 faculties, recommended for others• So far 21 programmes
The data
849 questionnaire responses21 focus groups
Quality of feedback analysis (IoE)Programme audits
Contradictions and tensions in perceptions
• Feedback• Assessment loading• Communication of goals and standards• Fairness
SD (24) D (72) N (178) A (377) SA (117)
% 0.03125 0.09375 0.231770833333333
0.490885416666667
0.15234375
5%15%25%35%45%55%65%75%85%95%
Overall I was satisfied with the quality of this course
% T
otal
Res
pons
es
Feedback (quantity, quality, timeliness)
- Regular feedback- Rich and detailed- Within the university policy (15 days)- Students don’t read it, all they want is a
grade
staff
Feedback(timeliness)
SD (77) D (225) N (218) A (167) SA (105)
% 0.0972222222222222
0.284090909090909
0.275252525252525
0.210858585858586
0.132575757575758
5%15%25%35%45%55%65%75%85%95%
Whatever feedback I received on my work came too late to be useful
% T
otal
Res
pons
es
“The feedback on assignments are not prompt. In year 2 we had to wait 9 weeks to get our grades for an assignment. Again in year 3 lecturers are still marking assignments 5 weeks after the deadline, therefore no grades have given.”
“I always find the first term a bit of a guessing game - you don’t know if you’re doing great, or really bad, because all the assessments are at Christmas; so you might be going through a 12 week term, without knowing anything.
students
Feedback(quantity)
“Half the time I don’t ever really get any feedback or even get it marked.”
“There was one lecturer we kept emailing because we wanted feedback and we got one email, the whole group, saying, please leave me alone, I’m trying to do my work.”
SD (49) D (149) N (240) A (227) SA (112)
% 0.0592503022974607
0.180169286577993
0.290205562273277
0.334945586457074
0.135429262394196
5%
15%
25%
35%
45%
55%
65%
75%
85%
95%
Normally, I receive a sufficient amount of feedback on my work
% T
otal
Res
pons
es
“it’s lazy, it’s just what everybody else gets, it’s not personal at all.”
students
Feedback(quality)
“There’s been a couple of assignments where I’ve had a fairly mediocre mark, but then I’ve only had two lines of feedback, and I’m there thinking like, ‘Ok, that’s great, two points, but what can you expand on to tell me how I can improve that?’”
SD (77) D (244) N (214) A (195) SA (62)
% 0.0972222222222222
0.308080808080808
0.27020202020202
0.246212121212121
0.0782828282828283
5%15%25%35%45%55%65%75%85%95%
I didn’t understand some of the feedback on my work
% T
otal
Res
pons
es
“It doesn’t really explain much, it says good, ok but what’s good.”
students
• Student lack of understanding of what feedback is (especially oral, whole class)
• Staff lack of signposting and communication
Feedback (The reason for the tensions)
Quantity of feedbackWritten feedback
Average 6995 words per student per programme (up to 21000)
Oral feedback
On average 40% of feedback is oral
Feedback (The reason for the tensions)
• Lack of acknowledgment of progress
• Minimal advice on how to improve
Assessment (over-)loading
• Appropriate number of assessment linked to objectives
• We only do 1 or 2, sometimes 3 assessments per course
staff
Assessment (over-)loading
SD (18) D (97) N (164) A (148) SA (69)
% 0.0362903225806452
0.195564516129032
0.330645161290323
0.298387096774194
0.139112903225806
5%15%25%35%45%55%65%75%85%95%
I felt overloaded by the number of assessments throughout this programme
% T
otal
Res
pons
es
“I feel like it’s so much work and there’s so much material, and so much content that they’re trying to cover in the 2 semesters that it’s really not even sinking in”
“It’s too much and what’s worse it’s all happening at the same time. E end up having 3 assessments in 2 weeks plus coursework.”
students
Assessment (over-)loading(The reason for tensions)
…the curse of a portfolio
32%
63%
5%
Assessment diet
exam
portfolio
dissertation
11%
11%
16%
5%5%5%2%
18%
5%
18%
2%
Actual assessment dietExamEssayReportWritten CWOnline TaskIn-Class TestPracticalPDPACTArtefactPresentationClass Contribu-tion
19 assessments 55 assessments
Clarity of goals and standardsFairness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyG5ugFYQ4s
Summary
Lack of understandingLack of understanding
Lack of communicationLack of communication
staff
students
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