Making Feedback Learner-Centered

This resource outlines guidelines and methods for providing effective, learner-centered feedback.

“Nothing that we do to, or for, our students is more important than our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on it. The results of our assessment influence our students for the rest of their lives and careers — fine if we get it right, but unthinkable if we get it wrong.”

(Race, Brown, & Smith, 2005, p. xi)

Learner-Centered Feedback

Feedback is a crucial component of the learning process, offering students constructive insights into their performance to guide improvement and foster deeper understanding. Effective feedback, provided with or without a grade, can help improve students’ learning.

Learner-centered feedback should support students to:

1. understand the relevance of what they are learning;
2. reflect on and evaluate their learning; and
3. communicate their knowledge in real-world contexts (Blumberg, 2009).

Learner-centered feedback can be delivered in many ways. Common modes include written comments on assignments, verbal feedback during class discussions or one-on-one meetings, and digital feedback via email or interactive tools like online quizzes or Intelligent Agents in Brightspace. Students also receive feedback through instructors’ facial expressions, tone, body language, and gestures  (Costello & Crane 2015), which must be taken account when delivering feedback orally whether in person or through audio/video recordings.

Regardless of what model you use, effective feedback should encourage students to reflect on their learning and apply the feedback to future work, and it must  be delivered in a timely and kind manner (Geyskens et al., 2012).

More recent scholarship has coalesced on the conditions necessary for instructors to give effective feedback and the conditions necessary for students to receive that feedback.

Feedback is successful when:
Capacity for feedback	Students and instructors understand and value feedbackStudents are active in the feedback processInstructors seek and use evidence to plan and judge effectiveness of feedbackStudents and instructors have access to appropriate space and technology to receive and provide feedback
Design for feedback	Feedback provided is usable and students know how to use itFeedback is tailored to meet the different needs of studentsFeedback is delivered in a variety of modes (as appropriate)Feedback is aligned with learning outcomes
Culture for feedback	Feedback is valued and visible at all levelsThere are processes in place to ensure consistency and quality of feedbackLeaders and instructors ensure commitment to effective feedbackInstructors have flexibility to deploy resources to best effect

 

General Guidelines for Good Feedback

Good feedback should:

• Clarify good performance based on specified goals, criteria, and standards — for example,
  • “You did a good job with what you have done here. However, if you look at the rubric, 15% of your mark is for organizing your data in a table, which you have not done.”
• Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection — for example,
  • “Your analysis is strong, but I’m curious how you chose your sources. What criteria did you use, and how might different criteria impact your conclusions?”
• Deliver specific information to learners about their learning — for example,
  • “Refer to the handout on creating diagrams, you could start with a simple two column diagram to support your arguments.”
• Encourage teacher and peer dialog around learning — for example,
  • “Let’s discuss ways you could clarify your solution and make your mathematical reasoning easier to follow.”
  • “Try sharing your solutions with a classmate to see if they can follow your reasoning or have suggestions on enhancing clarity.”
• Encourage positive motivational beliefs specific to achieved success — for example,
  • “The inclusion of statistics in your introduction was a great choice! They helped capture your audience’s attention and demonstrated your thorough preparation. Good work.”
• Provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired student performance — for example,
  • “I am willing to re-read your lab report once you have added the missing sections. Please refer to the handout provided.”

Responding to Student Writing

While the principles of good feedback apply to all student work, responding to large quantities of student writing pose specific challenges and opportunities.

To ensure your feedback remains timely, kind, usable, and ultimately  effective, consider the below strategies when responding to student writing and designing writing assessment.

Prioritize Feedback

Your feedback on student writing should reflect the hierarchy of your concerns. Higher-level concerns (e.g., paper organization, supporting evidence, and idea development) should be treated more prominently and at greater length than lower-order concerns (e.g., grammatical or mechanical issues).

You don’t have to comment on every little thing that went wrong in a paper. Instead, choose two or three of the most important areas in which the student needs to improve, and present these in order of descending importance.

Respond to Drafts

Require students to submit early or partial drafts of larger written assignments. Research has shown that feedback is often most effective when students have the opportunity to apply it (Carless and Boud, 2018, Henderson et al., 2019). Providing feedback on drafts enables students to integrate your feedback into their writing process, whereas receiving feedback on a final draft limits their ability to make meaningful revisions based on your input. Further, the feedback you provide on drafts can focus more on developing students’ writing skills rather than just evaluating the work or justifying a grade.

Invite Student Input

To enhance students’ involvement in the feedback process, have students write a cover letter or “letter from the author” to accompany their papers or drafts. In these letters, students can specify aspects of their writing they wish to improve or particular areas where they would like feedback. For assignments with multiple drafts, having students write a cover letter articulating how they have incorporated prior instructor or peer feedback can help students more efficiently organize and respond to instructor feedback (Daniel et al., 2015).

While your feedback should still address the assignment’s overall purpose and outcomes, responding to students’ input can make your feedback more targeted and meaningful. This strategy supports students’ agency and encourages them to actively engage with the feedback process.

Incorporate Peer Feedback

There are many benefits to peer feedback or peer review (Topping, 2009). Peer feedback is effective as it allows students to have a more active and reflective role in the feedback process (Nicol et al., 2014, Nieminen et al., 2022). It can be facilitated in class using handouts and worksheets, or it can be done online using a tool like peerScholar.

To help ensure peer feedback is beneficial to students, establish clear guidelines outlining what aspects of the assignment students should review. For example, you might instruct students to proofread and edit classmates’ papers, or you might have them provide more substantive feedback on the idea development in an early draft.

Address Grammar Purposefully

If a student’s writing contains many grammatical errors, avoid circling or commenting on all of them, as this will overwhelm the student. Instead, identify a pattern and comment on only one or two instances of the error.

If you notice a common grammatical error in the work of multiple students’, consider offering instruction on the issue during class time.

References

• Blumberg, P. (2009). Developing learner-centered teaching: A practical guide for faculty. Jossey-Bass.
• Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325.https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354
• Costello, J., & Crane, D. (2015). Promoting effective feedback in online learning. In S. Keengwe (Ed.) Handbook of research on active learning and the flipped classroom model in the digital age (pp. 212-232) . IGI Global.
• Daniel, F., Gaze, C. M., & Braasch, J. L. (2015). Writing cover letters that address instructor feedback improves final papers in a research methods course. Teaching of Psychology, 42(1), 64-68. doi: 10.1177/0098628314562680.
• Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences. John Wiley & Sons.
• Geyskens, J., Donche, V., & Van Petegem, P. (2012). Towards effective feedback in higher education: bridging theory and practice. Reflecting Education, 8(1), 132-147. https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/77b705/7d489545.pdf
• Hattie, J., & Timperely, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research March, 77(1), 81-112. doi: 10.3102/003465430298487
• Henderson, M., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P., Molloy, E., & Mahoney, P. (2019). Conditions that enable effective feedback. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(7), 1401-1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1657807
• Nicol, D., Thomson, A., & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective. Assessment & evaluation in higher education, 39(1), 102-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.795518
• Nieminen, J. H., Tai, J., Boud, D., & Henderson, M. (2022). Student agency in feedback: beyond the individual. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(1), 95-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1887080
• Race, P., Brown, S., & Smith, B (2005). 500 tips on assessment. (2nd ed.). Routledge Falmer.
• Schmitt, E. M., Hu, A. C., & Bachrach, P. S. (2008). Course evaluation and assessment: Examples of a learner-centered approach. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 29(3), 290–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960802359524
• Topping, K. J. (2009). Peer assessment. Theory into practice, 48(1), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802577569

Resource created by: Jane C. & Daph C.

Originally Published: October 19, 2015