I Needed a Bridge -I turned to Feedback
All three of my assumptions were erroneous and based more on my insecurity than on any evidence in the classroom. Students had not grasped the basic concept of Community Development much less its intricate nuances and most students had not demonstrated an ability to think critically or make critical connections. I needed to get these bright students to work collaboratively on a project which used Community Development principles around an issue which was important to them. I needed to keep these students engaged. I needed to connect with these students. I needed a bridge. I turned to feedback.
Feedback - that all-illusive element of teaching which can potentially be the most beneficial and do the most harm; the Achilles heel in education which generally students feel most dissatisfied with and up until recently, one of the least researched areas in educational theory. (Winsone and Nash 2016)
Evidently, I needed to take a long hard look at what feedback actually is, why I am giving feedback, whether students realise when I am giving it and why I am even calling it ‘giving’ feedback as if it were a hand-out to students (Y1 feedback 2016). I also needed to explore what I expect students to do with a ‘could do better’ and the breach between what I say and what my students actually hear in a feedback scenario.
Feedback and Assessment: Two sides of the Same Mountain.
Literature and evidence from the classroom soon showed me that if I were genuine about changing my feedback approach, I could not split this practice from that of its counterpart; assessment. If I wanted to foster students’ participation and sense of ownership over their learning using a more organic feedback process then I could not start with a hegemonic block of assessment. My assessment methodology would also need to be based on dialogue in order for students to truly buy into the process.
So I went about re-framing my assessment and feedback practice. In order to do this effectively, I needed to embed feedback and assessment literacies in my teaching and our learning. Assessment and feedback literacies are so important because as Price et al. state ‘learning is more effective when students understand the assessment process’ (Price, Carroll, O’Donovan & Rust 2011). I would like to add to this idea that learning is more effective and meaningful when students understand and actively participate in the assessment and feedback process.
In the words of Race, Brown and Smith;
'Nothing that we do to, or for, our students is more important than our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on it. The results of our assessment influence our students for the rest of their lives and careers - fine if we get it right, but unthinkable if we get it wrong.' (Race, Brown and Smith 2005)