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READ | TEACHING @ | EVALUATING STUDENT LEARNING

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Grading and Giving Feedback

Providing feedback to students and collecting feedback from them are important and informative elements of teaching well. Because of the difficulties and emotions involved, most instructors are anxious about providing honest feedback, particularly when it is negative. Yet there are many mutual benefits connected with feedback. Students benefit through getting feedback on how well they are learning. Teachers benefit from course feedback through learning how well their actions are facilitating learning and what changes or additional approaches they might use to further student understanding. Institutions benefit from feedback through obtaining information on how well overall goals for students are being achieved.

Assessment activities that result in feedback range from simple classroom assessments to  institutional efforts to measure change across particular program areas. In this chapter, the focus is on efforts by the instructor. The results of two main kinds of assessment activities are formative feedback, which is designed to provide diagnostic information to learners and their teachers, and summative feedback, which is used to determine final grades or other summary information. While many assessment activities provide both, it is important to be clear with students in advance about the purpose of an activity.

Students often complain that the basis for their evaluation is unclear to them. Students' ability to "guess" what topics will be presented as a part of their evaluation and in what form is hardly indicative of their mastery of course content. Additionally, questions employed for evaluative purposes should be of the same nature and scope as day-today class activities and assignments. This is not to say that the evaluation must be a "regurgitation" of classwork and readings but rather that it should be within the same general framework. Not-for-grade trial tests, given early in the quarter, can be useful tools both to alert the instructor as to the students' abilities and to provide the students with an understanding of the method of evaluation that will be used.

Giving Feedback

Formative feedback can be an important part of the ongoing teaching process. Since feedback is essential to learning, frequent diagnostic assessment enhances the learning that will take place in a given course. Many instructors build frequent opportunities for self-checks into their teaching: they punctuate lectures with questions that call upon students to demonstrate their understanding of the topic at hand, they ask students to solve problems after watching a demonstration, or show how they are interpreting the information which they are receiving. Instructors may ask students to keep journals, to demonstrate a particular technique, or to relay their understanding to a fellow student. In most of these cases, the assessment activity is not graded and is solely to help learners understand how well they are doing and to help the teacher know how to proceed.

Bergquist and Phillips (1975) have identified characteristics of feedback for formative purposes:

  • It is descriptive. It focuses on an action or result rather than on personal attributes of the student. For example, instead of saying, "You are so emotional in your writing," the teacher might say, "Your argument was hard to follow, given the use of heated language."
  • It is specific. It points out particular aspects that are good or need improvement. For example,  instead of saying, "Good job," the teacher might say, "Your paper was well-researched."
  • It is directed toward behavior that the student can do something about. Instead of saying, "You should have learned this in high school," the teacher can say, "It is important to know about quadratic equations before you go on."
  • It is prompt. Feedback is usually most useful when it is given in a timely fashion.
  • It involves the amount of information the student can use rather than the amount that the teacher would like to give. A few well-designed comments on a paper are more effective than a sea of red ink.
  • It involves sharing information rather than giving advice. It is helpful to let the learner decide what steps to take to remediate any problems that exist, since ownership and the probability of change are more likely than if a course of action were prescribed by another.
  • It is solicited rather than imposed. When learners ask for information about their performance, they are more likely to listen to the answer. It takes into account the needs of both learner and teacher. Although teachers sometimes want to express their frustration with the results of an assignment, the needs of the learner must also be met.
  • It concerns the result rather than the reason. When teachers assume why a learner performed a certain way, they can be making false inferences that will damage the relationship. Instead of saying "You probably didn't study because of the big game," a teacher might say, "This performance is below par for you. Usually you can define terms."
  • It is checked for clear communication. It is a good idea to ask students to paraphrase feedback so that the teacher can see whether it corresponds with the message he or she intended to give.

Constructive feedback communicates caring and honesty. It avoids false praise and global blame.

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