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Feedback is high on the agenda in higher education (due in part to the fact that in the National Student Survey, assessment and feedback has attracted lower scores than other categories over the last three years). Feedback is of interest primarily because academics are concerned about how to use assessment effectively to promote student learning. Feedback plays an important formative role in helping students improve their learning, and in this respect the term ‘feed forward’ is often used in recognition of this formative function of feedback.

The Student Enhanced Learning Through Effective Feedback (SENLEF) project identified seven principles of good practice in feedback – it :

1. Facilitates the development of self - assessment (reflection) in learning.
2. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning.
3. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards).
4. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance.
5. Delivers high quality information to students about their learning.
6. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem.
7. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching.

These principles indicate both the complexity and potential role of feedback that need to be considered in curriculum design. A copy of the SENLEF report which includes an explanation of the seven principles of good practice in feedback, a model of feedback, and case study examples, can be found on the Higher Education Academy website.

A briefing paper by Barbara Walvoord (July 2005) ‘Explaining the reasons for criticisms of students’ academic performance’ provides some sensible hints on how to provide helpful feedback to students, for example by replacing autopsy with coaching.

The Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange CETL (ASKe) have produced a series of ‘123’ Leaflets which can be downloaded from their site and provide information for both staff and students on effective feedback.

Further information on the HLST website:

The 2009 Annual HLST Conference was dedicated to assessment and feedback and the presentations provide interesting insights into current issues and responses.

LINK 24 features Assessment and Feedback.

A number of articles in JoHLSTE also consider feedback, see for example:

Holmes, K and Papageorgiou, G (2009) Good, bad and insufficient: Students’ expectations, perceptions and uses of feedback, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, Vol 8, No 1, p. 85 -96. 
Further papers can be found by searching for 'Feedback' on the JoHLSTE Website.

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