Feedback and Its Triangulation with Teaching and Learning: A Quality Enhancement Strategy.

Abstract

Although feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, its impact can be either positive or negative. This research focused on how feedback could be employed as a quality enhancement strategy in the teaching and learning process at university level. A qualitative case study involving a total of sixty students on three different programmes, namely: Bachelor of Education II (all ten students), Bachelor of Education I1I (all twenty students) Bachelor of Education IV (all 30 students) was carried out. All students on the said programmes participated in the study which collected data using focus group interviews and document analysis. Findings indicated that students valued feedback as it reassured them in terms of their progress. It had motivational potency. The feedback needed to be timely and varied, focusing not only on a task, but also on the process used to complete a task. It further emerged from the findings that feedback should be a symbiotic process benefiting both the student and the lecturer. When the two parties got feedback from each other the teaching and learning process was enhanced. The evidence also revealed that the type of feedback and the way it was given could be differentially effective. The study suggests ways in which feedback could be used to enhance effective teaching and learning.