Dialogic Feedback Research Articles

What attributes guide best practice for effective feedback? A scoping review.

There has been an observed increase in literature concerning feedback within the last decade, with the importance of feedback well documented. Current discourse promotes feedback as an interactive, dialogic process between the learner and the learning partner. While much has been written about effective feedback, less is known about key elements that support dialogic feedback. It is therefore important to investigate what is known about the elements that guide best practice for effective feedback. A scoping review of the extant literature following Arksey and O'Malley's methodology was conducted. A search of literature published in English identified sixty-one publications eligible for this review. Publications were representative of the international literature from both empirical and non-empirical sources. Feedback elements were extracted from the included publications and categorised into 11 core attributes. The attributes identified feedback as: being a process; criteria-based; requiring multiple forms and sources of data/evidence; needs to be desired by the recipient (i.e. invited and welcomed); timely; responsive to the learner (i.e. tailored to developmental needs/learning preferences of the learner); frequent; future-focussed; reciprocal (i.e. two-way); involves skilful interaction; and is multidimensional (i.e. engages the learner in more than one way). Despite the rhetoric on feedback as a 'dialogic process', a gap remains in our understanding around what is required to engage the learner as an equal partner in the feedback process. Further research exploring the impact of specific aspects of the feedback process on practice is required.

Not Just Listening to the Teacher's Voice: A Case Study of a University English Teacher's Use of Audio Feedback on Social Media in China

A teacher’s feedback is one of the most important aspects of student learning. Although feedback can arguably move students from their current level to their desired goals, students in higher education rate it as one of the least satisfactory areas partly because of the unidirectional nature of written feedback. This paper contains a case study of a university English teacher’s use of audio feedback on a popular social media platform in China. This study includes an analysis of the teacher’s audio feedback and follow-up interactions with students on the popular WeChat application, teacher interviews, student reflective journals and 10 classroom observations of student presentations. The study found that many features of the teacher’s audio feedback contributed to student learning. Findings also reveal how the instructor’s audio feedback on social media created opportunities for dialogic feedback by increasing student engagement with the comments and enhancing meaning negotiation, as well as how the teacher and students perceive the use of audio feedback. These findings are discussed in terms of creating dialogical feedback contexts for student learning, incorporating use of audio feedback into teacher assessment literacy, and utilizing social media as an innovative platform for audio feedback. It concludes with implications for feedback practice in higher education and teacher assessment education.

Social filters shaping student responses to teacher feedback in the secondary drama classroom

ABSTRACTLittle is known about how secondary drama students identify or utilise teacher feedback. This article presents findings from a study exploring how drama students describe their experiences of teacher feedback and how, or if, they apply this feedback to enhance their learning. Data collection and analysis focused on students’ experiences of teacher feedback occurring in three secondary drama classrooms in Queensland, Australia. Emergent findings suggest that drama students employ contextual, social and individual learning filters to assess the usefulness of teacher feedback. In the highly interactive and relational drama classroom, social filters can induce or hinder the existence of dialogic feedback. This can subsequently influence the drama students’ perspectives of the usefulness of teacher feedback. This article draws on the student voice to describe these social filters and suggests how drama teachers may culture opportunities for drama students to engage with dialogic and useful teacher feedback.

The development and application of coding frameworks to explore dialogic feedback interactions and self‐regulated learning

This article presents a focused analysis of teacher and student interaction in feedback conversations to contribute to an understanding of feedback as a dialogic process. Extending the work of previous research, two new and detailed coding frameworks—one for teacher feedback and another for student feedback—were developed to capture teacher–student interactions in feedback conversations. The codings were used to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse how opportunities were opened or closed for student contribution. The article draws on data from video and audio recordings and transcripts from 12 participants (six teacher/student pairs in Year 9 in secondary schools in a range of discipline areas), involved in one‐to‐one feedback conversations. The study took place in a standards‐based assessment system where criteria and standards (rubrics) are the basis of teacher judgement of student performance. Taking an inclusive research approach, student participants included students who had identified special learning needs. The findings identify how the shifts in teacher–student feedback conversations can be captured to demonstrate the intricacies of these interactions and, in particular, how the development of student self‐regulatory skills was supported in some conversations but not in others. The study demonstrates how the dialogic nature of feedback can contribute to learning for both student and teacher.

Konsep Komunikasi Pendidikan dalam Alqur`An Surat Lukman

This study aims to examine the concept of educational communication in alqur`an letter Lukman. This research is designed using qualitative approach by applying literature research method. The data used in this study comes from primary data and secondary data, while the primary data are the Qur'anic Manuscript of Lukman and supported by the hadiths of the Prophet relevant to the research problem, while the secondary data comes from books, magazines and written documents. The conclusion of this study reveals that the concept of educational communication in Surat Lukman is indicated by the dialogical atmosphere between father and son in an effort to achieve the salvation of life in the world and in the hereafter. The term dialogis here indicates that there is an element of communication between two people, in this case father and son. Father is a communicator or initiator of ideas in planning the atmosphere of the dialogue. But also he is at the same time the listener (in feedback dialogue) so that he at once became a communicant
 
 Keyword: Education Communication, al-Qur`an Surat Lukman
 

Strengthening dialogic peer feedback aiming for deep learning in SPOCs

This study is focused on how peer feedback in SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) can effectively lead to deep learning. Promoting deep learning in online courses, such as SPOCs, is often a challenge. We aimed for deep learning by reinforcement of ‘feedback dialogue’ as scalable intervention.Students provided peer feedback as a dialogue, both individually and as a group. They were instructed to rate each other's feedback, which was aimed at deep learning. Data from questionnaires from 41 students of a master epidemiology course were used to measure for each feedback assignment to what extent deep learning was perceived. The feedback received by students who scored extremely high or low on the questionnaire was analyzed in order to find out which features of the feedback led to deep learning. In addition, students were interviewed to retrieve information about the underlying mechanisms.The results support the view that peer feedback instruction and peer feedback rating lead to peer feedback dialogues that, in turn, promote deep learning in SPOCs. The value of peer feedback appears to predominantly result from the dialogue it triggers, rather than the feedback itself. Especially helpful for students is the constant attention to how one provides peer feedback: by instruction, by having to rate feedback and therefore by repeatedly having to reflect. The dialogue is strengthened because students question feedback from peers in contrast to feedback from their instructor. As a result, they continue to think longer and deeper, which enables deep learning.

Using design-based research to develop a Mobile Learning Framework for Assessment Feedback

Students’ lack of engagement with their assessment feedback and the lack of dialogue and communication for feedback are some of the issues that affect educational institutions. Despite the affordance that mobile technologies could bring in terms of assessment feedback, research in this area is scarce. The main obstacle for research on mobile learning assessment feedback is the lack of a cohesive and unified mobile learning framework. This paper thus presents a Mobile Learning Framework for Assessment Feedback (MLFAF), developed using a design-based research approach. The framework emerged from the observation of, and reflection upon, the different stages of a research project that investigated the use of a mobile web application for summative and formative assessment feedback. MLFAF can be used as a foundation to study the requirements when developing and implementing wide-scale mobile learning initiatives that underpin longitudinal practices, as opposed to short-term practices. The paper also provides design considerations and implementation guidelines for the use of mobile technology in assessment feedback to increase student engagement and foster dialogic feedback communication channels.

Descriptive feedback: student voice in K-5 classrooms

In this article, the author argues the imperative of critical dialogue between learners and teachers on learners’ experiences in the classroom. This dialogical process is called “descriptive feedback”—feedback given by students to teachers on their (students’) experiences as learners. Drawing on the literature on feedback, descriptive feedback, and student voice, the author contends that descriptive feedback dialogues are not only rich sources of understanding of learning, teaching, and school, but offer a creative counter to a relentless, often dehumanizing, atmosphere of test prep and “coverage.” The results of this study point to the creation of space where students become teachers, teachers become learners, learners become learners of teaching, and both collaborate on creating curriculum. Within this space students develop a heightened sense of their own agency, and acquire new language with which to talk about learning. Teachers develop a curiosity about students’ point of view and come to trust in their capacity to contribute to both curricular content and pedagogical process.

Examining the nature and effects of feedback dialogue

Research has conventionally viewed feedback from the point of view of the input, thus analysing only one side of the feedback relationship. More recently, there has been an increased interest in understanding feedback-as-talk. Feedback dialogue has been conceptualised as the dynamic interplay of three dimensions: the cognitive, the social-affective and the structural. We sought to explore the interactional features of each dimension and their intermediary effects on students. We analysed students’ feedback dialogue excerpts as cases using interactional analysis. Analysis involved iterative inductive and deductive coding, and interpretation of feedback texts generated in an online course. The cognitive, social-affective and structural dimensions were interwoven within excerpts of feedback dialogue with effects on learners that extended beyond the immediate task (e.g. reframing of learners’ ideas, critical evaluation). The interactional features of each dimension include: cognitive (e.g. question asking, expressing oneself); social-affective (e.g. disclosure, expressing empathy); and structural (e.g. longitudinal opportunities for dialogue, invitational opportunities). The study provides evidence that strengthens the call for reconceptualising feedback as a dialogic and relational activity, as well as supporting the view that dialogic feedback can be a key strategy for sustainable assessment.

A Dialogic Feedback Index measuring key aspects of feedback processes in online learning environments

ABSTRACTResearch on feedback shows the dialogic perspective as one that potentially promotes learning improvement. This article presents the Dialogic Feedback Index (DFI), a measure that contributes to establishing to what extent feedback design is potentially dialogic. Performing the study in an online context enabled us to evaluate the potential of the index to measure the institutional situation in relation to dialogic feedback. The applied case allowed us to identify four teaching and learning contexts whose designs range from low to high dialogic context. We were also able to establish three components which had a great impact in differentiating one context from another. Specifically, it was found that designing teaching and learning contexts with high levels of dialogic potential of feedback involves: (1) providing feedback before the task is completed, (2) incorporating peer feedback into the process and (3) allowing resubmission once the feedback has been received. The DFI is intended as an applied tool for teaching staff and institutions. With it they can determine the level of dialogic potential of feedback and plan how to improve it.

Feedback Conversations

In this paper, the authors describe how a study of a large database of written university teacher feedback in the department of Industrial Design led to the development of a new conceptual framework for feedback and the design of a new feedback tool. This paper focuses on the translation of related work in the area of feedback mechanisms for higher education into a tailored framework for feedback in the area of Industrial Design, the translation of the existing corpus of data into indicators of feedback quality and how feedback is received and further on used by students in their learning process. The newly developed tool structures teacher feedback into very targeted and highly focused feedback dialogues between teacher and individual students tailored to their individual learning process. The tool is described in this paper with respect to conversational aspects. In the future, the tool will be used actively in Industrial Design education, also with the purpose of further investigating how the quality of written feedback evolves and redesigning educational processes around feedback tools.

Anonymity as an instructional scaffold in peer assessment: its effects on peer feedback quality and evolution in students’ perceptions about peer assessment skills

Although previous research has indicated that providing anonymity is an effective way to create a safe peer assessment setting, continuously ensuring anonymity prevents students from experiencing genuine two-way interactive feedback dialogues. The present study investigated how installing a transitional approach from an anonymous to a non-anonymous peer assessment setting can overcome this problem. A total of 46 bachelor’s degree students in Educational Studies participated in multiple peer assessment cycles in which groups of students assessed each other’s work. Both students’ evolution in peer feedback quality as well as their perceptions were measured. The content analysis of the peer feedback messages revealed that the quality of peer feedback increased in the anonymous phase, and that over time, the feedback in the consecutive non-anonymous sessions was of similar quality. The results also indicate that the transitional approach does not hinder the perceived growth in peer feedback skills, nor does it have a negative impact on their general conceptions towards peer assessment. Furthermore, students clearly differentiated between their attributed importance of anonymity and their view on the usefulness of a transitional approach. The findings suggest that anonymity can be a valuable scaffold to ease students’ importance level towards anonymity and their associated need for practice.

Marking and providing feedback face-to-face: Staff and student perspectives

The setting, marking and providing feedback on assessments form an important part of a tutor’s role. Studies into the use of feedback and how it is interpreted by students indicate a mismatch between what students are looking for and what tutors think they are giving. Tutors comment that students are more interested in the mark than the feedback, and yet students indicate that they do not get enough feedback or that it is not useful. This study investigates student and staff perceptions of the linking of marking and feedback in face-to-face sessions. A cohort of year 1 university students were given the option of receiving either written feedback or a 15-minute meeting with one of their tutors to have their essay marked with them. In all, 49 students chose face-to-face marking, and the remaining 35 students received written feedback. Focus groups were used to investigate the student experience. Staff members were also asked to reflect on the process. Students and staff found the experience of face-to-face marking beneficial and positive. Both felt that the time spent together allowed for a feedback dialogue about the piece of work and that staff could explain and justify why marks were given.

Dialogic feedback and potentialities for student learning

Abstract Dialogic approaches to feedback have been highlighted as important in re-conceptualizing the notion of feedback in higher education. However, this kind of claims has rarely been explored conceptually, and we know little about how dialogic feedback takes place when learners engage in feedback practices. The object of this study is two-fold; first we derive four dialogic dimensions from dialogic theory, and second we use these dimensions as an analytical framework to investigate feedback dialogues between a teacher and his students. For the purpose of in-depth investigation of the learning potential in dialogic feedback, we use interaction analysis. Based on the four theoretical dimensions merged with findings from our empirical case, we suggest an analytical model for the purpose of conceptualizing the distinctive features of dialogic feedback. The model holds four potentialities for student learning from dialogic feedback, which are; (a) emotional and relational support, (b) maintenance of the feedback dialogue, (c) opportunities for students to express themselves, and (d) the other's contribution to individual growth. We propose this model as an analytical tool for researchers in further investigation of learning potential in dialogic feedback in higher education contexts.

Introducing dialogic feedback to HCA education: reflection in action

Dialogic feedback is the provision of feedback on submitted work, with which learners can engage and then formulate a response as to how they will address highlighted issues of importance within it. Written for healthcare assistant (HCA) educators and trainers, this article provides an insight into the processes of formative and summative assessment and how dialogic feedback can be a useful means of engaging HCA students in practice. The processes advocated are presented as a means of improving interactive dialogue with students and as a means of encouraging deeper learning, which can be further integrated into practice with patients and their families and carers. The article outlines the core characteristics of where using dialogic feedback can be used as a potential means of improving the transferable skillsets that HCAs attain in practice. Core aspects of reflection are considered and their place within future curriculum development for HCAs is outlined.

The Role of Individual Difference Factors in Writing Feedback Use and Involvement: A Qualitative Study of Iranian EFL Learners’ Perceptions

The purpose of the present study was to investigate individual factors that mediate Iranian EFL students’ engagement with feedback they receive on their writing. In fact, the purpose behind such a consideration was to identify the factors that may contribute to students' using or ignoring feedback as well as the emotions they may have during or after receiving feedback. A convenient sample of 10 students was recruited from an intact writing class in which students were usually provided with different types of feedback in both oral and written forms. The study enjoyed a qualitative case study design. The findings of the focused-group interviews revealed that students favored selective, individual and dialogic feedback by the teacher. In addition, they ignored feedback when they were not interested to learn or when the person providing it was not of interest to them. Finally, they liked to receive feedback and anxiety reduced their uptake from the received feedback. The findings are discussed and implications are suggested in relation to teaching writing.

Feedback mapping – The curricular cornerstone of an “educational alliance”

Purpose: The “educational alliance” concept articulates a collaborative framework to facilitate effective feedback through transparency of opportunities aligned with learner stage and intended educational outcomes. Using this framework, we evaluated feedback across a 5 year undergraduate medical program to support embedding a successful learner – teacher “educational alliance”.Method: A comprehensive mapping exercise used an iterative action research process of source documentary analysis, consultations with key curriculum stakeholders and qualitative analysis. The “educational alliance” model provided a critical lens through which to ensure feedback opportunities aligned with intended learning outcomes and developmental progression.Results: Key information about the type, frequency and timing of feedback opportunities was identified within 188 curricular components. The purpose and intended learning outcomes were mapped, aligning with the stage of learning and with an expectation of supporting learners’ capacity for self-regulation. This focus providing clear articulation of feedback opportunities supported the longitudinal developmental curricular review, and facilitated enhanced awareness of dialogic feedback within the “educational alliance”.Conclusions: Explicit alignment of learning intentions between learner and educator is key to forming a successful “educational alliance”. The feedback map provides clarity ensuring mutual understanding of intended learning outcomes. The iterative process additionally certified feedback aligned with maturing learner developmental needs across the program.

The reflective diary as a method for the formative assessment of self-regulated learning

ABSTRACTAn increasingly desired outcome of engineering education is the ability to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL). One promising method for the formative assessment of SRL is the reflective diary. There is, however, a paucity of research on the use of reflective diaries in engineering education. To mitigate this gap, we report on a case study where reflective diaries were implemented in a master’s course on tissue engineering. The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of reflective diaries for the formative assessment of three central aspects of SRL: conceptions of knowledge, conceptions of learning, and strategies for monitoring and regulating learning. Based on a theoretical thematic analysis of the diary entries, we show that reflective diaries can be used to assess these three aspects of SRL. We discuss ways of providing feedback to students, with a focus on dialogic feedback.

Limitations of Corrective Feedforward: A Call for Resubmission Practices to become Learning-oriented

As part of well-planned formative assessment, feedback can help students to understand the demands of a summative assessment task, evaluate their current level of performance, and then find ways to close the gap. As students take a more active role in this process, their feedback can be thought of as becoming ‘feedforward’ since it serves a specific purpose and drives student action. As the value of formative assessment design is becoming emphasised in higher education, summative assessment practices need to be re-evaluated in terms of how well they support learning as opposed to just supporting valid judgements of student performance. However, despite significant discussion of Assessment for Learning and Learning-Oriented Assessment, resubmission practices are largely overlooked even though resubmission can be a key event in whether students are retained. As part of a learning support department’s effort to provide effective feedback on academic writing, students referred for support were offered two types of feedback: one was simple correction, the other was in-depth dialogic feedback which followed “feedback for learning” guidance (Askew and Lodge 2000). Student engagement with the two types of feedback was analysed by looking at the changes students made to their work and feedback from their subject tutor (including the resubmission grade). The tutor’s feedback was also analysed to see if any intentions for the resubmission task could be inferred. Results suggest that corrective feedback is highly efficient in enabling students to pass resubmissions and that more in-depth feedback is much less efficient. This paper highlights some of the ways in which resubmission practices can unknowingly encourage surface approaches, and suggests some ideas for how learning support can better align with subject tutors to enable resubmission to become more learning-oriented.

Show me the Feedback

The Y1Feedback project is a partnership between four Irish Higher Education institutions, which aims to enhance feedback dialogue in first year undergraduate programmes through the use of digital technologies, to better support student transition. The project has conducted a review of feedback practice across partner institutions and a synthesis of feedback literature. Informed by this work, the project has identified a set of features of effective feedback for first year together with a set of technology-enabled feedback approaches. Currently, there are 20 case studies in progress to pilot these approaches. This paper reports the findings from the review of feedback practices and outlines features of effective feedback and approaches that educators can implement to better support first year transition.