Exploring the written feedback dialogue: a research, learning and teaching practice

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The final paper of this Special Issue on Exploratory Practice (EP) is another illustration of the potential of EP for doctoral research. More importantly, like the preceding paper by Gunn it emphasizes learner as well as teacher understanding, and, most importantly, it also explores ‘quality’ in interpersonal relationships.This paper reports on research, conducted in an EFL Academic Writing context, about a written dialogue between a teacher and her learners. This dialogue consists of the learners’ written text, the teacher’s written feedback and the ongoing responses that ensue from this initial exchange.Most past research into teachers’ written comments on student-writers’ work has examined quantitatively either the teachers’ or the learners’ perspective, and has emphasized the outcomes of the learners’ revision process. A comprehensive analysis of the intentions and interpretations of the exchange from both the teacher’s and the learners’ perspective, as well as of the dynamic nature of the dialogue within its full pedagogical context, has not yet been done. It was hoped that such an analysis could lead to some generalizations which, in turn, could lead to recommendations for improving pedagogical practice.However, what began as a quest for a theory that could inspire guidelines for teacher effectiveness became a quest for an understanding of the conditions under which effectiveness could best be achieved. In EP terms, these conditions represent life in the classroom and the quest illustrates the aim of teacher research: to strive toward improving the quality of the life that will enable more effective use of the feedback dialogue as a crucial element in the writing process.The paper begins by inserting the current research into the context of qualitative research literature, leading directly to EP principles. Reporting on the research itself, it shows how some of the principles were manifested in the research practices. The findings reveal that it is precisely through dialogue (the written exchange as a social enterprise) between the participants in the learning-teaching situation (in a spirit of collegiality), that an understanding of the feedback dialogue can best be reached. Herein lies the promise of an improvement in the quality of life, quality of education and ultimately quality of learning (Allwright, this issue).