DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Christi Fitch
Alamance County
Southern Alamance HS
Science

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Analyzing how students use assessment feedback

Feedback can have a positive influence on student achievement. According to Rowe & Wood (2007) feedback constitutes a central aspect of learning, yet has been largely neglected in research to date, particularly from the student’s point of view. 

 

  • Educational feedback can be defined as a constructive response to a formal or informal assessment of a student.
  • Assessments are evaluations of student learning or mastery of a particular skill.  These can be both formal and informal.

With the introduction of No Child Left Behind act (2001) more focus has been placed on standardized test scores and formative assessments, than in previous years of education. Students are judged by teachers and an assessment, but are they acquiring the critical thinking skills to assess themselves? 

 

Students are being held to a higher level of assessment mastery, but it is unclear what impact if any this has had on their use of higher level thinking skills such as using feedback. One area in particular is the student’s use of feedback to improve their performance.

 

The literature states that formative assessment provides students with information about their performance (Weaver, 2006; Yorke, 2003), that feedback provides information about performance in comparison to a reference level (Ramaprasad, 1983) and can be used to improve performance, clarify understanding and enhance learning (Ford & Chen, 2001).

 

 

PURPOSE 

Feedback plays a key role in how much material is retained and in the students’ expectations as a learner. The research shows that most studies completed looked at feedback as having an impact not only on aca

demics but also the social, emotional, and behavioral learning of a student.

 

Most everything we have learned from infancy to adulthood has been through the use of feedback whe ther we realize it or not. You learn from a young age that certain facial expressions and tones of voice are related to either praise or punishment. The same is true for students who are taking standardized assessments. They learn that what they have been doing has worked to give them a good grade or has not worked and they need to change their study habits.

 

 Building on previous research and also exploring new dimensions of research, this paper will explore how high school biology students interpret the feedback given to them after assessments, and how they use this information to improve academic performance on later assessments. Also included, will be the student’s ideas about what feedback is and how they feel they use it to improve their academic knowledge as measured on standardized assessments.

 

 

RESOURCES

Ford, N., & Chen, S.Y. (2001). Matching/Mismatching revisted: an empirical study of learning and teaching styles. British Journal of Educational Technology, 32(1), 5-22.


No Child Left Behind Act (2001). President William Clinton.


Ramaprasad, A. (1983). On the definition of feedback. Behavioral Science, 28, 4-13.


Rowe, A.D., & Wood, L.N. (2007). What feedback do students want? Macquarie University. 07086.


Yorke, M. (2003). Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice. Higher Education, 45(4), 477-501.


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

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

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DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.