HomeBlogFeedback Planning for Effective Feedback and Promoting Feedback Literacy by Aaron TrockiFebruary 11, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionBlog Home AI and Engaged Learning Assessment of Learning Capstone Experiences CEL News CEL Retrospectives CEL Reviews Collaborative Projects and Assignments Community-Based Learning Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity ePortfolio Feedback First-Year Experiences Global Learning Health Sciences High Impact Practices Immersive Learning Internships Learning Communities Mentoring Relationships Online Education Place-Based Learning Professional and Continuing Education Publishing SoTL Reflection and Metacognition Relationships Residential Learning Communities Service-Learning Student Leadership Student-Faculty Partnership Studying EL Supporting Neurodivergent and Physically Disabled Students Undergraduate Research Work-Integrated Learning Writing Transfer in and beyond the University Style Guide for Posts to the Center for Engaged Learning Blog 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 semester. The many tasks included in this preparation include updating syllabi, posting office hours, establishing the curricular schedule, and lesson planning the first week of classes. In addition to these, we also plan for service committee work, professional travel, and ongoing scholarship projects and collaborations. In the midst of all these various pulls on faculty time and energy, it is easy to lose focus on those we proport to serve: students. In this blog post I share some reflections and plans for honoring students’ perspectives and needs related to the feedback strategies I am learning about and plan to use in my teaching. Quality Feedback Feedback takes place when instructors give information to students. Quality feedback will give students an indication of their progress towards meeting learning goals and outcomes. Wood describes learning outcomes as specific to students’ actions and based on operational verbs (Wood 2021, 50). In preparing for the spring semester, I have considered how to increase the degree to which learning goals and outcomes are made explicit to my students. In the past, I have shared learning goals on my course syllabi and have read through them in class during the first week of the semester. However, I have only verbalized learning outcomes during lessons and never made a concerted effort to share these with students further. Going into this spring semester, I intend to make expectations clear for students and have been writing learning outcomes for each unit of study I will teach this semester. I speculate that students will appreciate having these written outcomes at the beginning of each unit, and that these outcomes will allow me to give meaningful and actionable feedback. The Feedback Loop For the feedback to be worthwhile, students must act upon it and close the feedback loop. Recall the feedback loop introduced in a previous post. Flowchart image from Clark and Talbert (2023, 12) When faculty move students through the feedback loop, they promote feedback literacy. Carless and Boud define feedback literacy as, “the understandings, capacities and dispositions needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies” (2018, 1316). Feedback literacy is inherent to the goal of higher education, which is to produce lifelong learners. Furthermore, developing feedback literacy in students will empower graduates to grow and thrive in their future professions where feedback loops are part of professional development growth cycles. Feedback Literacy My plan to promote feedback literacy this semester begins with sharing written learning outcomes with students. My feedback will be given in regard to the level of evidence students show in satisfying these learning outcomes and in how students can improve their learning (and the evidence they show). This way, the feedback may work to facilitate learning as opposed to simply justifying a mark or grade. Even when faculty design their feedback to facilitate learning, many barriers preclude students from meaningfully engaging with the feedback. After conducting systematic focus groups with students, Winstone et al. (2016) identified four main themes (psychological processes) and sub-themes (barriers) to feedback recipience. Psychological ProcessBarriers to Feedback RecipienceAwareness of what the feedback means, and its purpose→Inability to decode feedback; Limited “feedback mental model”Cognizance of strategies by which the feedback could be implemented →Poor knowledge of appropriate strategies; Poor knowledge of available opportunities Agency to implement strategies→Sense of disempowerment; Difficulties with translating feedback into actionVolition to scrutinize feedback and implement strategies →Lack of proactivity; Lack of receptivenessTable adapted from Winstone et al. (2016) In their work, Winstone et al. distinguish between barriers in which students cannot use feedback and barriers where students will not use feedback. They suggest the promotion of proactive recipience where students actively receive and engage in using feedback as self-regulated learners. I intend to offer feedback that recognizes these potential barriers and works to overcome them. This will require me to discuss what feedback I give, what it means related to the learning outcomes I’ve designed, and how students should utilize it to promote their learning. Remember the Purpose of Feedback In order to effectively incorporate feedback into teaching and learning, faculty must consider the dual purpose of feedback: to justify a mark or grade and to promote student learning and future performance. Feedback that invites students to respond and act will increase the likelihood that they use it to regulate and improve their learning over time. Understanding the levels of feedback literacy students possess will also help faculty meet students where they are and remove barriers to making feedback educative. The short treatment of feedback and feedback literacy in this blog post has helped me reconsider and plan the feedback strategies I will use this spring and may help you enhance the feedback strategies you incorporate as well. In future blog posts, I will report on how these strategies play out with an eye towards developing feedback literacy. References Carless, D., and D. Boud. 2018. “The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of feedback.” Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 43 (8): 1315-1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354. Clark, David and Robert Talbert. 2023. Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education. New York: Stylus Publishing, LLC. Driscoll, A., S. Wood, D. Shapiro, and N. Graff. 2021. Advancing Assessment for Student Success: Supporting Learning by Creating Connections Across Assessment, Teaching, Curriculum, and Cocurriculum in Collaboration with Our Colleagues and Our Students. New York: Routledge. Winstone, N. E., R. A. Nash, J. Rowntree, and M. Parke. (2016. “‘It’d be useful, but I wouldn’t use it’: barriers to university students’ feedback seeking and recipience.” Studies in Higher Education 42 (11): 2026–2041. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1130032. About the Author Aaron Trocki is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Elon University. He is the CEL Scholar for 2023–2025 and is focusing on models of assessment and feedback outside of traditional grading assumptions and approaches. How to Cite this Post Trocki, Aaron. 2025. “Planning for Effective Feedback and Promoting Feedback Literacy.” Center for Engaged Learning (blog), Elon University. February 11, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/planning-for-effective-feedback-and-promoting-feedback-literacy.
