Scaffolding Feedback Research Articles

Dialogic feedback at scale: Recommendations for learning analytics design

AbstractBackgroundFeedback is central to formative assessments but aligns with a one‐way information transmission perspective obstructing students' effective engagement with feedback. Previous research has shown that a responsive, dialogic feedback process that requires educators and students to engage in ongoing conversations can encourage student active engagement in feedback. However, it is challenging with larger student cohorts. Learning Analytics (LA) provides promising ways to facilitate timely feedback at scale by leveraging large datasets generated during students' learning. However, current LA design and implementation tend to treat feedback as a one‐way transmission rather than a two‐way process.ObjectivesThis case study aims to improve LA design and practice to align with dialogic feedback principles by exploring an authentic dialogic feedback practice at scale.MethodsWe explored a dialogic feedback practice of a course having 700 undergraduate students. The case study used quantitative and qualitative analysis methods to investigate what students expect from feedback, how educators respond to students' feedback requests, and how students experience feedback.Results and ConclusionsThe results emphasise the need to focus on cognitive, relational and emotional aspects of the feedback process. In aligning LA with dialogic feedback principles, we propose that LA should promote the following objectives: reflection, adaption, personalisation, emotional management, and scaffolding feedback provision.

Relationships between teacher feedback and English writing proficiency in Chinese students: The mediating effect of writing self-regulated learning strategies

Teacher feedback and self-regulated learning (SRL) are crucial in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing and instruction. However, little work has explored how these two constructs jointly influence writing. This study aimed to examine the relationships between teacher feedback, students' use of writing SRL strategies, and English writing proficiency. Data were used from 691 EFL learners in five universities in mainland China. The results indicated that all types of teacher feedback did not significantly predict students' English writing proficiency but writing SRL strategies did. Besides, all types of teacher feedback significantly predicted writing SRL strategies. Writing SRL strategies mediated the relationships between four types of teacher feedback (i.e., verification feedback, directive feedback, scaffolding feedback, teacher praise)and English writing proficiency. After adding gender as a covariate, two SEM results yielded significant changes: teacher criticism did not predict writing SRL strategies ; writing SRL strategies were not a mediator in the association between scaffolding feedback and English writing proficiency anymore. The findings not only empirically support the social cognitive model of self-regulated writing, but inform us of the importance of using SRL writing strategies in addition to providing varied types of feedback information to enhance students’ English writing proficiency.

Perceived teacher feedback practices, student feedback motivation and engagement in English learning: a survey of Chinese university students

Abstract Drawing on recent theorizing of feedback in educational assessment and psychology, the current study aimed to examine the links between perceived teacher feedback practices, student feedback motivation and engagement in English learning. Seven hundred and sixty-four Chinese university students attending a tertiary-level English enhancement course (N = 764; age: M = 19.45, SD = 0.88; 57.3 % female) participated in this study. The students completed surveys measuring their perceived teacher feedback practices, feedback motivation and engagement. Scaffolding feedback, verification feedback, and criticism were found to significantly predict student feedback motivation. Feedback enjoyment significantly predicted student feedback engagement, but there was no positive significant relationship between perceived feedback usefulness and feedback engagement. Indirect effects testing provided empirical evidence that student feedback motivation mediated the impact of teacher feedback on student feedback engagement in a university English enhancement course context.

Facilitating Undergraduates’ Online Self-Regulated Learning: The Role of Teacher Feedback

Facilitating undergraduates’ self-regulated learning (SRL) is the key to successful online learning, and teachers’ various feedback plays an important role. Through an investigation on Chinese university students’ online learning experience, the study found students’ SRL strategies differences in terms of students’ gender, grades and achievement rank. The structural equation modeling analysis showed that different teacher feedback can influence different SRL strategies. Specifically, verification feedback, scaffolding feedback and teacher praise were positively related with students’ SRL, and teacher criticism also positively predicted three dimensions of SRL. Adopting verification and scaffolding feedback and the balance of teacher praise and criticism were suggested as they can enhance students’ online SRL strategies. Implications for university online teaching are further discussed.

Relationships Between Teacher Feedback and Student Motivation: A Comparison Between Male and Female Students.

This study aimed to investigate gender differences in teacher feedback and students’ motivation in learning and their relationship patterns. In total, 1,082 secondary students in China (538 male and 544 female students) participated in this study. The results of MANOVAs suggested that language teachers provided less directive feedback but more criticism to male than female students. Male students reported less intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and test anxiety than female students. The results of two-group structural equation modeling indicated that both male and female students’ motivation was best predicted by teachers’ scaffolding feedback and praise. Verification feedback had a negative correlation with female students’ extrinsic motivation and no significant correlation with male students’ motivation. Directive feedback had a negative correlation with male students’ intrinsic motivation and a positive correlation with female students’ extrinsic motivation. Further, teacher criticism only had a negative correlation with female students’ intrinsic motivation. Implications for future research as well as suggestions for teachers on how to improve male and female students’ motivation are discussed.

Gender differences in teacher feedback and students’ self-regulated learning

ABSTRACT This study examined gender differences in teacher feedback, students’ self-regulated learning (SRL), and their relationships. A total of 444 tenth graders participated in this study, with 218 male and 226 female students. According to the results of MANOVA, male students perceived that their teachers provided more criticism but less directive feedback to them than female students did. Unexpectedly, it was found that male and female students reported generally similar levels of SRL. Two-group structural equation modelling suggested that female students’ SRL was best predicted by verification and scaffolding feedback, and criticism. Scaffolding feedback had strong positive correlations with both male and female students’ SRL, and unexpectedly, directive feedback and praise had limited correlations with all students’ SRL. We discussed some findings and suggestions for teachers to improve male and female students’ SRL via feedback.

Analysis of Teachers’ Scaffolding Feedback in University Students’ Writing Activity

Analysis of Teachers’ Scaffolding Feedback in University Students’ Writing Activity

Grade-Level Differences in Teacher Feedback and Students' Self-Regulated Learning.

This study investigated grade-level differences in teacher feedback, students’ self-regulated learning (SRL), and their relationship. Secondary students participated in the study (N = 1,260; 430 10th-, 460 11th-, and 370 12th-graders). Latent factor mean difference analyses suggested that teacher feedback and students’ SRL level varied across grades. Comparatively, 10th-grade teachers were perceived to provide verification feedback, scaffolding feedback, and praise most frequently; 12th-grade teachers were perceived to provide directive feedback and criticism most frequently; and 11th-grade teachers were perceived to provide all types of feedback least frequently. Students’ SRL generally declined as they aged. Results from three-group structural equation modeling indicated that praise generally exhibited the strongest correlations with SRL regardless of grade level; directive feedback was negatively correlated with 10th graders’ SRL but positively correlated with the SRL of 11th and 12th graders; scaffolding and verification feedback were positively correlated with 11th graders’ SRL; and criticism had small correlations with SRL, regardless of grade level.

Scaffolding Feedback Between Cowriters With Different Levels of English-Language Proficiency

When students cowrite with others who have different levels of proficiency with the English language, they can experience unproductive conflict related to feedback avoidance. The author interviewed 20 professionals with experience cowriting across such different English proficiencies and found three strategies that can facilitate feedback and collaboration: calibrate genre and reader expectations, establish protocols for reviewing texts, and frame feedback as a learning opportunity. She suggests that these strategies can be a step toward helping students mitigate their anxieties about feedback and feel more empowered to engage with linguistically diverse peers.

The Role of Calibration of Comprehension in Adolescence: From Theory to Online Training

The current study examined the effects of a computerized training program on reading comprehension, confidence ratings, and calibration of comprehension in adolescents with poor and good reading comprehension. Ninety 10th graders participated in the study and completed three training sessions. In each session, participants read two expository texts and answered multiple-choice questions. For each answer they gave, participants also rated their confidence. Participants were assigned to one of three online training conditions that differed in the type of immediate feedback provided after each question: (a) Feedback on performance; (b) Feedback on performance and on calibration; (c) Feedback on performance with scaffolding (a cue for correcting wrong answers). Results demonstrated that scaffolding feedback was the most effective training condition, leading to improved comprehension performance and calibration, especially for poor comprehenders. These findings highlight the necessity of developing theoretical and practice models of online feedback interventions for reading comprehension and self-evaluation abilities.

Teacher feedback and students’ self-regulated learning in mathematics: A comparison between a high-achieving and a low-achieving secondary schools

This study compared teacher’s feedback and students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) in mathematics and the relationship between them in a high- and a low-achieving secondary school. A total of 1282 secondary students participated in this study, 652 and 630 from the high- and the low-achieving school, respectively. The results of t-tests indicated that teachers at the high-achieving school compared to teachers at the low-achieving school provided more praise and more verification, directive, and scaffolding feedback but less criticism. Students at the high-achieving school reported using more SRL strategies and having greater motivation in mathematics than those at the low-achieving school. Two-group structural equation modelling indicated that merely verification feedback and teacher’s praise had positive relationships with high-achieving school students’ SRL, whereas scaffolding feedback, teacher’s praise, and criticism had positive relationships with low-achieving school students’ SRL. Particularly, directive feedback had more negative correlations with students’ SRL at the low-achieving school than at the high-achieving school.

Teacher Feedback and Students’ Self-regulated Learning in Mathematics: A Study of Chinese Secondary Students

This study comprehensively investigated how different types of teacher feedback may influence students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) in mathematics. A total of 584 Chinese secondary students participated in this study. Findings showed that teachers provided verification feedback and scaffolding feedback with a high frequency, and provided directive feedback, praise, and criticism with a moderate frequency. Students reported a generally moderate level of SRL in mathematics learning. Male students reported generally higher levels of motivation and more use of cognitive strategies than female students. Results of structural equation modelling indicated that scaffolding feedback and praise predicted students’ improved SRL behaviours. By contrast, verification feedback and directive feedback predicted a reduction in students’ use of organizational strategies but a slight increase in their metacognitive awareness. Criticism predicted students’ increased test anxiety but, unexpectedly, had no predicative power of other presumably possible negative effects on students’ SRL behaviours. Implications for mathematics teachers to develop students’ SRL via feedback are provided and suggestions for future research are discussed.