Get feedback on your feedback

One of the ways to get feedback on feedback is to look for signs in student work: have they taken on board your feedback and has it allowed them to evolve their work effectively? While this is the greatest validation that your feedback is doing what it is meant to (changing student practice), it can be difficult to identify, being both filtered through student work, and your visibility or their communication of that work. You may wish to consider other methods for seeing how your feedback is absorbed by students which are more direct.

Questioning, noticing and noting

A key part of these methods is simply being cognisant of things said and done by students and how they may relate to their experiences of feedback, and then capturing this information in some form in order to consider and act on it. By tracking these notes and changes you have a better capacity to respond to them and they can be easily used to show your efforts towards improving teaching practice.

Validation language

If you are providing feedback in dialogue with a student (either synchronously or asynchronously) be sure to follow comments by asking students ‘what questions do you have?’ or ‘what are your next steps?’ to see if the information you have provided has been clear to them and given them a clear direction.

Invite students to use the ‘feedback comments feature’ in Canvas

Canvas has the capacity for students to add comments specifically in relation to their assignment feedback. Encouraging students to use this feature is a means to gain direct feedback on your feedback. To further embed this dialogue you may even wish to design this into the teaching experience as a feedback literacy/agency interaction. By giving the students the chance to interrogate and place their comments about their feedback and what they think they are meant to do next, they benefit from a reflective interaction and you benefit from seeing whether your feedback has given them a good frame for their next steps.

Use collective feedback for information gathering

Make use of collective feedback interactions to see whether general feedback comments are commonly understood, or whether there are common questions and consequently further clarification needed.

Ask more questions where you can

Consider ways that you can embed questions into your subject experience that allow you to capture further information. While you can ask a class verbally and gather opinions from those most comfortable with speaking up, you can also consider running survey questions for students separately to gather a more collective view.

Take interpretations, feed them back to students & gather feedback on potential changes

Another useful action might be to run your considered solutions around feedback practice by students before implementing them. You might be able to gather more information by giving them an example they can grasp to see whether you are on the right track or whether you might need to reconsider your interpretation or solution further.

Peer or external review

While students are the key users of your feedback, you can also gather viewpoints from a peer. Giving a feedback example and asking them what they would do next in the student’s position or what they think learners might do next may help to provide some insights about potential refinements.

Opening up the discussion about feedback with a peer creates a space where you can share more general tips and ideas around this aspect of teaching. Historically feedback practice has been seen as a personal interaction and not often discussed, but there are great benefits to being able to talk openly about this element of teaching practice.

You may also wish to seek out an ‘external’ reviewer for further insight. While peers may be readily accessible, they may also be less likely to identify frameworks or ideas that are ‘taken for granted’ within the discipline, but which are not yet understood by students (as they are still becoming part of it). Whether you could call upon a peer from outside your direct discipline sphere or book in a consultation with the LX.lab, having a set of eyes which is not typically immersed in the same framework may draw out new insights.

Encouraging Student feedback on teaching

Getting the feedback information you need relies on learners feeling that they are welcome to, and benefit from, offering their views. A general perception that you are open to teaching feedback in a collaborative mode and that their feedback is acted upon will create a space where there is an easier flow of information. There are a range of things that you can do to encourage students to share, and help them articulate, their perceptions. Resources going into this exist in relation to SFS and EFS responses, but are equally applicable for this purpose.

Interpreting Feedback

Interpreting any feedback you receive from students is an important step in deciding on potential changes you might make. Be aware that individuals may be good at knowing how they feel about a situation, but they are not always the best designers of the solution that will resolve the issue they have. Despite this, people often articulate feedback as suggestions of what should be changed – more/less of a certain thing, or the addition of a new feature/practice.

While responding to these specific requests may feel like an entire process in itself (you are responding to students by giving them what they are asking for), it’s valuable to consider why learners are asking for that particular thing. From your position, you may be able to implement a solution that would solve the actual core problem in a way that is better than the one they have proposed.