Developing student feedback literacy

As the evidence mounts for incorporating feedback into our teaching and assessment practice, it is important to remember that its effectiveness is only assured by developing our students’ ‘feedback literacy’ along the way. These tips build on the four features of feedback literacy as explained by Professors David Carless and David Boud in their 2018 article ‘The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback’. We’d recommend dedicating 5-10 minutes of seminar time – perhaps during the first four weeks of the semester – to introduce these dimensions of feedback literacy. Investing this time early will pay dividends for you, as a teacher, and your learners, with a noticeable improvement in both engagement and achievement.

1. Appreciating Feedback - Take time to discuss, with your students, the relationship between feedback and improvements to their work. Talk about the different forms of feedback – they need to understand it as more than simply an assessment mark or a comment. Feedback is a process that consists of discussions that incorporate questioning and constructive critique. It should start early in the semester and remain a constant feature of your class conversation, extending beyond the relationship between you and the students to incorporate peer feedback and self-review, too.
2. Making Judgments - Share strategies that help students constructively assess their own work, and the work of their peers in a productive (and informed) manner. Think about how these skills can carry over to their prospective workplaces upon graduation, and run simulations or play out scenarios in which these skills might be used.
3. Managing Affect - It’s easy to slip into a defensive mode when receiving feedback. Have a discussion about the difference between feedback and criticism, and the benefits of maintaining ‘emotional equilibrium’. Overcoming defensiveness increases the likelihood that students will start to seek out feedback and see the value of this grow in relation to their performance. For students challenged by this, take some time to discuss it.
4. Taking Action - As your students develop these capabilities, you’ll observe a more action-oriented approach to feedback, where they start to develop strategies to implement feedback. As you observe this shift, make a note of some of these strategies, as they can help inform your own insights into this process and provide an informal ‘repository’ of approaches that can help future students develop their feedback literacy.