Abstract
The study examines the effects of the feedback given to students by lecturers as learning support. It was conducted with undergraduates in an educational theory course in a South African university. The thesis was that although some of the feedback messages transmitted to students regarding strengths and weaknesses in learning get easily decoded and turned into action to improve performance, some messages are misconstrued by the students making the process of giving feedback complex. Data was collected through a cross-sectional feedback survey utilizing focus group interviews with 50 Bachelor of Education pre-service students conveniently sampled. The data analysis followed a thematic approach with superordinate themes used to structure the discussion of findings. The study found that student feedback needs to be culturally responsive for it to foster metacognition in them. The conclusion was that unless lecturers provide feedback that is simple, meaningful and clearly focused, students are unlikely to take much heed of it as there is a general tendency to focus more on the marks obtained than on the role of the feedback provided. This makes some students leave university under-prepared or half-baked in terms of providing student feedback on performance.
Highlights
Conceptualizations of the Notion of Student Feedback Current trends in constructivist pedagogy require that educators and learners engage in learning conversations in their quest to co-construct and share knowledge (Magano, Mostert and Van der Westhuizen, 2012)
According to Boud (2001), one of the most valuable contributions any educator can make to students’ learning is through the provision of constructive feedback. They need to be conscious of the different approaches to feedback as well as the dangers of cultural transplantation in the provision of student feedback in academia. It is in this light that scholars and academics outside of South Africa need to understand the different conceptualizations of the notion of feedback by their students and the many and varied insights on the ways through which the provision of effective feedback can be disseminated to students in their quest to effectively scaffold their learning experiences
342 Unpacking Student Feedback as a Basis for Metacognition and Mediated Learning Experiences: Population and Sample The population from which the convenient and systematic sample for this study was obtained consisted of 500 second year Bachelor of Education students in the faculty of Education of the university chosen as the site for the study
Summary
Conceptualizations of the Notion of Student Feedback Current trends in constructivist pedagogy require that educators and learners engage in learning conversations in their quest to co-construct and share knowledge (Magano, Mostert and Van der Westhuizen, 2012). A number of writers (e.g. Boud 2001; Laurillard 2002; Sadker 1998; Yorke 2003) have argued that feedback is under-conceptualized in the theoretical literature in higher education and elsewhere As a result, this makes it difficult for lecturers and tutors to design effective feedback practices or to evaluate their effectiveness. According to Boud (2001), one of the most valuable contributions any educator can make to students’ learning is through the provision of constructive feedback To do this, they need to be conscious of the different approaches to feedback as well as the dangers of cultural transplantation in the provision of student feedback in academia. It is in this light that scholars and academics outside of South Africa need to understand the different conceptualizations of the notion of feedback by their students and the many and varied insights on the ways through which the provision of effective feedback can be disseminated to students in their quest to effectively scaffold their learning experiences
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