The reciprocal nature of assessment-as-learning and feedback literacy

Abstract

Students using feedback is a key opportunity for learning through assessment. However, even when teachers exert significant effort to make feedback information accurate, timely, and personalised, students may not act on it. The concept of “feedback literacy” turns the focus in feedback towards what students are able to do, in terms of their knowledge, attitudes and capabilities in relation to seeking, using, and acting on feedback. Feedback literacy may be a significant contributor to the successful design of assessment-as-learning (AaL); whilst AaL can help to design successful tasks which develop feedback literacy. This chapter includes case studies from an Australian higher education context, where activities aimed at improving students’ feedback literacy were embedded within the curriculum; including assessment tasks using an AaL design. It demonstrates the opportunities and challenges in developing students’ feedback literacy skills, and argues that students’ feedback literacy is a positive contributor to implementing AaL. Making multiple sources of feedback available, providing opportunities for students to reflect on their progress within assessment tasks, and opportunities to implement feedback in subsequent assessment tasks may strengthen the opportunities for feedback to act as part of an AaL approach.