English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
UH Lecturers’ written feedback and students’ use of feedback – a match made in heaven?
Mary Martala-Lockett & Jayne ParryELT UnitCombined Studies
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
• 2 questionnaires to JH1 students + phone interviews + samples of Sem A coursework with lecturer feedback attached– 1st questionnaire - Sept 2007, 192 students– 2nd questionnaire – post Sem A, 11 students– informal interviews – post Sem A, 53 students– samples of work: 39 students
• 1 questionnaire to 18 JH1 lecturers + informal interviews
Methodology
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Students’ pre-entry experienceof feedback
Results of first student questionnaire
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
169
116
142
49 1
Students' experience of writing at entry
answers to exam questionstexts under 1 pagetexts 1 - 3 pagestexts 4 plus pagesother
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
139
175123
135
Students' experience of feedback at entry
mark/grade onlymark & some writ -ten feedbackmark & ample writ -ten feedbackmark with oral feedback
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
2
44
132
15
Number of times assessed work is consulted
neveronce2 - 4 timesover 5 times
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miscellaneous
to check mistakes/omissions
to understand comments
to review strengths/weaknesses
only if relevant to current work
to check areas to revise
to see where I went wrong
to learn from mistakes
to correct my work
to improve future assignments
it's done - no need to look at it
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
25
7
11
24
6
9
17
16
13
73
12
Students' reasons for consulting feedback (or not)
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Yes No0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
178
13
Students receiving feedback on drafts prior to UH
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teachingquite useful useful very useful extremely
usefulnot useful no drafts
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
5%
12%
69%
4% 1%
9%
Students' rating of draft work
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
on cover sheet
on the essay
as footnotes
on essay & cover sheet
written + tutorial
recorded or oral
emailed
negotiated
other
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
91
162
66
111
142
25
66
32
4
Students' preferred feedback method
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
praise
content
organisation
use of language
language corrections
name and correct error
underline, no correction
question error
request further info
ticks
use of error codes
mark only
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Preferred feedback comments
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching0
20406080
100120140
Yes
No
Not sure
123
18
51
Students who would like the opportunity to nego-tiate type of feedback with lecturer in advance
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Students’ experienceof feedback at UH
Results of second student questionnaire
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
answers
to exam questi
ons
texts under 1
page
texts 1 - 3
pages
texts 4 plus p
agesother
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Students' experience of writing
pre-entryat UH
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Times students have consulted assessed work
neveronce2 - 4 timesover 5 times
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
mark/grade only
mark & some written feedback
mark & ample written feedback
mark with oral feedback
0%10%
20%30%
40%50%
60%70%
80%90%
100%
Students' experience & preference of feedback
students find usefulat UHpre-entry
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very happy
happy
unhappy
other
N/A
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Students' feelings about feedback received
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
on cover sheet
on the essay
as footnotes
on essay & cover sheet
written + tutorial
recorded or oral
emailed
negotiated
0% 10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
Feedback method
sts' received feedback method sts' preferred feedback method
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
praise
content
organisation
use of language
language corrections
name and correct error
underline, no correction
question error
request further info
ticks
use of error codes
mark only
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
64%
59%
36%
27%
50%
0%
32%
50%
32%
73%
5%
18%
73%
45%
64%
36%
55%
45%
18%
36%
45%
45%
27%
9%
Are students receiving the type of comments they would like?
preferred commentsreceived comments
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
yes
no
not sure
no answer
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Negotiation of type of feedback
Lecturers who would like to negotiate feedbackStudents who had op-portunity to negotiate feedbackStudents who would like to negotiate feedback
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Lecturers’ views on feedback
Results of questionnaire
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
university requirement
helps students
explain what was right + wrong
explain what was wrong
dialogue with students
encourage and motivate
justify mark
advise on how to improve
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
2
8
5
6
1
1
2
4
Reasons for providing feedback
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
comments on cover sheet
all along text/essay
bottom of page
on text + on cover sheet
comments + tutorial
recorded (oral) comments
emailed comments
agree method
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Number of Lecturers
How do you provide feedback on students' work?
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
other
praise
content
comments on organisation
comments on use of language
corrections of grammar + spelling
naming error + correction
underlining error only
questions
request for info.
ticks
use of error code
mark only
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
What does your feedback include?
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
student trainingno comment
peer marking face to face
onus is on studentsfeedback via a sound file inter-relate assessments
earlier feedback peer oral feedback
tutorialsstudents to write a learning analysis
standardise across dept. return feedback without grade
feedback glossary
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
How can use of feedback be improved?
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Opportunity for feedback on drafts
feedback on drafts pre-entryfeedback on drafts at UHlecturers' answers
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
extremely useful
very useful
useful
varies according to student use
quite useful
not useful
no drafts
0% 5% 10%15%20%25%30%35%40%
9%
36%
18%
9%
0%
27%
0.330000000000001
0.28
0.17
0.22
How is draft work rated?
lecturers' viewsstudents' views
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Feedback on Student Coursework
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
ticks
coded comment
underlining
a few comments on text
some comments on text
many/detailed comments on text
comment tick box
criteria box
comments on cover sheet
40%
4%
1%
34%
5%
25%
14%
31%
50%
Methods of delivering feedback (based on 74 pieces of written coursework)
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
4
ticks + few comments on text; 8
2
2
11
2
3
1
7
6111115
3
3
11
4
2
21
2
4
5
Methods of Providing feedback (28 Possible Combi-nations) marks on cover sheet, marks + ticks on text
ticks + few comments on text written comments on text comments on cover, a few on textcriteria + cover comments only a few comments on cover, ticks + few comments on textcriteria marks on top sheet + comments criteria marks on top sheet + few comments on textcriteria marks on top sheet + few comments + ticks on textcriteria marks on top sheet +few comments + few comments on textcriteria marks + some comments on cover + detailed comments on text + tickscriteria marks on cover + detailed comments on text + markscriteria marks + comments on cover + ticks on textcriteria + cover comments + a few underliningcriteria marks on top sheet +few comments + detail marks on text, comment on final pageticks and detailed written comments on textsome comments on top sheet+ few on textdetailed comments on cover sheet onlysome comments on a top sheet+ ticks + coded comments on texttick box + correctioncomments + tick box+detailed comments on texttick box + ticks on texttick box + comments on texttick box + comments on cover sheet tick box, detailed comments + ticks on textsome comments on cover + ticks on textcomments + tick box+detailed comments on text + ticksdetailed comments on cover and text
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Praise
ticks
comments
on content
comments
on organisa
tion
comments
on use of langu
age
langu
age co
rrecti
ons
name an
d corre
ct erro
r
underlining e
rrors
but no co
rrecti
on
questi
ons/furth
er info re
quested
use of erro
r codes
mark only
criticis
m
comments
on referencin
g 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Comparison between the feedback lecturers stated they would give, students’ preferences and the feedback provided
Lecturers' answers Student preferences Actual
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Conclusion:
feedback is valued;
reduced use of drafts at UH;
mismatch in feedback delivery;
mismatch in type of feedback;
too much variety in the methods of providing written feedback?
English Language TeachingEnglish Language Teaching
Recommendations :
some standardisation of the delivery of written feedback
increased use of drafts
increased one to one contact with lecturers
negotiation of the type of feedback provided