Using video technology to enable student voice in assessment feedback

Abstract

AbstractStudents’ voices have been remarkably absent in feedback research, yet research shows that the way students engage with feedback significantly impacts on its effect on learning. Feedback research has mainly focused on aspects of the feedback message between a sender and receiver, with little consideration of the positioning of students in this process. This article (a) provides an overview of the literature about feedback in education and the role of the student in these processes and (b) provides findings from a pilot project that explored the use of video technology as a self‐reflection tool for six teachers and six students to capture assessment interactions and give students a voice in feedback conversations. The pilot employed iPads to facilitate video‐aided self‐reflection on feedback practices. The results suggest that not only is video a powerful tool for teacher reflection on their feedback practices, it can also provide better understanding of the student perspective in feedback conversations. Importantly, involving students themselves in video‐stimulated recall of feedback conversations has the potential to contribute to students’ self‐reflection of their involvement in the feedback process, encouraging them to make their voices heard and participate in feedback as a dialogic practice.