Feedback literacy: a critical review of an emerging concept

Abstract Student feedback practices have been primarily discussed within a context of the particular course or unit of study. Little attention has been paid to how students navigate their feedback practices as they progress through different learning contexts and whether they apply known feedback strategies in new settings. To open exploration of this issue, case studies of five participants were studied over different courses – undergraduate, direct-entry access program and postgraduate - in order to identify how learners’ understandings of past and immediate contexts impacted their approaches to feedback. Data were collected through student artefacts which included e-portfolios completed in the direct-entry program and two interviews, approximately one year apart. Thematic analysis of the data indicated influences of learners’ feedback histories on the application of feedback in new contexts. The findings highlight the need to consider students’ past feedback experiences, as well as identify connections between courses, in order to assist students in applying feedback practices across contexts. Further research exploring how micro transitions between courses and students’ lived experiences of interacting with feedback tools and materials influence their feedback literacy is recommended.

Navigating feedback practices across learning contexts: implications for feedback literacy

Peer feedback activities are characterized by peers performing both roles of feedback provider and receiver, and peers are found to benefit from both roles. However, in current feedback literacy studies, the emphasis has been overwhelmingly given to students’ understandings, capacities and dispositions in receiving feedback, and existing student feedback literacy scales measure only the receiving side of feedback literacy. Students learn from providing and what they provide fundamentally shapes what others receive. This study conceptualizes peer feedback literacy as students’ capacities and attitudes in providing and receiving peer feedback, and developed and validated a peer feedback literacy scale on the basis of responses from 474 Chinese university students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and four factors emerged: feedback-related knowledge and abilities, cooperative learning ability, appreciation of peer feedback, and willingness to participate. The resulting scale showed good psychometric properties and revealed some surprising associations with student major, year and amount of prior experience.

Assessing students’ peer feedback literacy in writing: scale development and validation

Abstract Conceptualising feedback as dialogue places even greater importance on successful interpretation of the message as a crucial step leading to the uptake of feedback. This interpretation is not always straightforward as it takes place through a cultural and linguistic lens that international students bring to feedback conversations. This research explored the role that sociocultural competence plays in students’ uptake of feedback, unpacking the broader role of language and culture in feedback. Interviews with 13 European science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) students uncover the variety of experiences and conceptualisations that influence their interpretation of feedback messages. At a theoretical level, the findings call for a greater consideration of the cultural dimension in feedback literacy discourse; at a practical level they call for a greater consideration for developing sociocultural competence for students transitioning to new cultural contexts.

‘What you mean versus what you say’ – exploring the role of language and culture in European students’ interpretation of feedback

Ideally, learning should help students optimally develop through various activities that enable students to pay attention to their well-being. Some teachers in Indonesia have participated in various professional development programs based on developing a progressive educational philosophy emphasizing the importance of differentiated learning to create Indonesia’s graduate profile, namely the Pancasila Student Profile. Implementing differentiated learning in Indonesia to realize the outcome of the Pancasila Student Profile is a novelty. Therefore, many teachers are still bewildered about the best practice to realize it. This study aims to construct a conceptual model of differentiated instruction based on the experiences of junior high school teachers in Indonesia through phenomenological studies. The number of participants in this study was 12 people selected through the purposive sampling method. Data collection is enacted through in-depth individual interviews. This study indicates that the conceptual model of differentiated learning is learning that provides opportunities for students to walk on their tracks; it also provides learning that emphasizes students’ physical and mental welfare and safety in the learning process. Teachers who comprehend and understand the philosophy of progressive education would possibly realize the concept of differentiated learning, which places students as empowered learners.

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Conceptual Model of Differentiated-Instruction (DI) Based on Teachers’ Experiences in Indonesia

Emerging research and examples from practice support the idea of feedback literacies as socio-material competencies. Such a conception highlights the contextual and social aspect of literacies but neglects their cultural aspect. Reality in higher education sees an increasingly international student body, particularly at postgraduate levels. International postgraduate students transitioning to new systems are likely to have developed diverse ‘literacies’ within their previous institutional cultures. Using narrative inquiry, this study collected in-depth stories of the assessment and feedback experiences of 10 international postgraduate taught students before and after transitioning to postgraduate education at a UK institution. The study gives accounts of the ways in which the students recognised, processed and utilised feedback. A combination of narrative and thematic analysis indicated a clear influence of culture- and context-shaped histories upon students’ feedback literacies. Such diverse literacies do not mirror the UK ‘norm’ for feedback literacy and do not initially support students in making effective use of feedback in the new environment. These findings highlight that shifting our conceptualisation of feedback literacies from universal to context- and culture-specific is necessary, as is embedding diversity and intercultural interactions within the development of intercultural feedback literacies.

Feedback cultures, histories and literacies: international postgraduate students’ experiences

Feedback is a dialogic process in which diverse individuals are involved. In internationalised higher education, individuals with different feedback literacies are likely to participate in feedback...

Veronica Rovagnati

Papers

Feedback cultures, histories and literacies: international postgraduate students’ experiences

Exploring intercultural dialogic interactions between individuals with diverse feedback literacies