Instructors’ Emotions Associated with Dialogic Feed-Forward

by Jessie L. Moore

February 2, 2023

60-Second SoTL – Episode 19

This week’s episode features an open-access article from Teaching & Learning Inquiry and examines instructors’ emotional responses when they give students assessment feedback:

Hill, Jennifer, Kathy Berlin, Julia Choate, Lisa Cravens-Brown, Lisa McKendrick-Calder, and Susan Smith. 2023. “Emotions Experienced by Instructors Delivering Written Feedback and Dialogic Feed-Forward.” Teaching and Learning Inquiry 11. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.6

View a transcript of this episode.

The episode was hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric. 60-Second SoTL is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.

Read Other Recent Studies of Feedback Processes

  • Carless, David, and David Boud. 2018. “The Development of Student Feedback Literacy: Enabling Uptake of Feedback.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 43 (8): 1315–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354. [Open Access]
  • Carless, David, and Naomi Winstone. 2020. “Teacher Feedback Literacy and its Interplay with Student Feedback Literacy.” Teaching in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1782372.
  • Carless, David, Diane Salter, Min Yang, and Joy Lam. 2011. “Developing Sustainable Feedback Practices.” Studies in Higher Education 36 (4): 395–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075071003642449.
  • Chalmers, Charlotte, Elaine Mowat, and Maggie Chapman. 2018. “Marking and Providing Feedback Face-to-Face: Staff and Student Perspectives.” Active Learning in Higher Education 19 (1): 35–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787417721363.
  • Hill, Jennifer, and Harry West. 2020. “Improving the Student Learning Experience through Dialogic Feed-Forward Assessment.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 45 (1): 82–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1608908.
  • Hill, Jennifer, and Harry West. 2022. “Dialogic Feed-Forward in Assessment: Pivotal to Learning but not Unproblematic.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 10: https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.10.20. [Open Access]
  • Hill, Jennifer, Kathy Berlin, Julia Choate, Lisa Cravens-Brown, Lisa McKendrick Calder, and Susan Smith. 2021b. “Exploring the Emotional Responses of Undergraduate Students to Assessment Feedback: Implications for Instructors.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 9 (1), 294–316. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.1.20. [Open Access]
  • Hill, Jennifer, Kathy Berlin, Julia Choate, Lisa Cravens-Brown, Lisa McKendrick Calder, and Susan Smith. 2021c. “Can Relational Feed-Forward Enhance Students’ Cognitive and Affective Responses to Assessment?” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 9 (2): https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.2.18. [Open Access]
  • Myyry, Liisa, Terhi Karaharju-Suvanto, Marjo Vesalainen, Anna-Maija Virtala, Marja Raekallio, Outi Salminen, Katariina Vuorensola, and Anne Nevgi. 2020. “Experienced Academics’ Emotions related to Assessment.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 45 (1): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1601158.
  • Paris, Brit. M. 2022. “Instructors’ Perspectives of Challenges and Barriers to Providing Effective Feedback.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 10. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.10.3. [Open Access]
  • Pitt, Edd, and Lin Norton. 2017. “‘Now that’s the Feedback I Want!’ Students’ Reactions to Feedback on Graded Work and What They Do With It.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 42 (4): 499–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1142500.
  • Reimann, Nicola, Ian Sadler, and Kay Sambell. 2019. “What’s in a Word? Practices Associated with ‘Feedforward’ in Higher Education.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 44 (8): 1279–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1600655.
  • Ryan, Tracii, and Michael Henderson. 2018. “Feeling Feedback: Students’ Emotional Responses to Educator Feedback.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 43 (6): 880–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1416456.
  • Spaeth, Ellen. 2018. “On Feedback and Emotional Labour.” Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice 6 (3): 83–86. https://jpaap.ac.uk/JPAAP/article/view/359/509. [Open Access]

Explore the Center’s Other Resources on Feedback

White tet on a background of blue and yellow cyclical arrows reads: "The feedback loop has helped me to think about feedback use in cycles, in contrast to feedback approaches that simply justify a mark or grade.”

Assessing Student Feedback Literacy 

In the last blog post, I discussed my initial plans for feedback this semester. A few insights have helped me to plan effective feedback strategies. The feedback loop (Clark and Talbert 2023) structures students’ engagement with feedback they receive to…

Orange square with quite quoted text reads: "Quality feedback will give students an indication of their progress towards meeting learning goals and outcomes."

Planning for Effective Feedback and Promoting Feedback Literacy 

As I continue to explore literature on models of assessment and feedback, the importance of feedback and feedback literacy has emerged as an ongoing theme. At the time of this writing, my colleagues and I are preparing for the spring…

Green background. Text on the left reads: The potential for ChatGPT to get match problems wrong forces conscientious students to use generative AI output critically and always assess its accuracy. To the right of text is a screenshot of handwritten math notes taken on a tablet in black pencil; pink and green highlights emphasize important math steps.

Analyzing an Artificial Intelligence-Supported Assessment and Student Feedback 

In my prior blog post, I summarized lessons learned from piloting an artificial intelligence-supported assessment (AI-SA) and gathering student feedback. This work was framed by Clark and Talbert’s feedback loop model where I used feedback I gathered from students during…

A gradient background with a text overlay: "I found that ChatGPT assisted most students with explaining these challenging concepts and applications for their non-expert readers... I hoped that students would use my feedback to make changes to how they demonstrate evidence of their learning when ChatGPT is available for their use."

Applying Lessons Learned about Student Use of Generative AI in Academics

In previous blog posts, I shared the results of a focus group interview about students’ perceptions of using generative AI in their academics. The focus group interview took place at the end of fall semester 2023 after my students completed an…

A man in graduation robes and cap is shown in profile. Text overlay reads, "Was College 'Worth It'? - CEL survey of meaningful undergraduate experiences"

Meaningful Undergraduate Experiences and How They Matter Now

The Center for Engaged Learning periodically conducts surveys on students’ experiences in higher education and their application to students’ post-graduation lives. Our latest iteration surveyed 956 U.S. residents who were 18-34 years old and graduates of two- or four-year higher…

Image of a person's hand holding up a phone displaying OpenAI's website home page, which reads: "Introducing ChatGPT. We've trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests." An accompanying quote from the blog post says the following: "I found these students to be aware of how AI works and knowledgeable of potential benefits to their lives and potential pitfalls to overreliance."

Student-Reported Benefits and Tensions about Generative AI in Academics: Part 1

My ongoing exploration of how generative AI might be used in assessment practices has revealed some benefits to teaching and learning, some drawbacks, and some tensions. Sharing this exploration through these blog posts and having numerous discussions about higher education…

Posted in:

Tagged: