Programme focused approaches to feedback

As many of you have joined us on the PAAIR journey, we continue to shift our thoughts towards programmatic approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, discussing how we can utilise programmatic principles to improve educational outcomes. One of the twelve (12) principles of programmatic assessment, as noted in the Ottawa consensus statement (Henneman et al., 2021), highlights the need to optimise data-points for learning through meaningful feedback practices. It goes on to discuss the need for intentional design of supportive feedback approaches, that enable student agency and support feedback literacy.

In their paper, From fast food to a well-balanced diet: toward a programme focused approach to feedback in higher education, Wilder-Davis et al. (2021) argue that a programme focused approach to feedback promotes a dialogue that fosters student progression across an entire program of learning, enabling improved learning outcomes and more autonomous learners.  Throughout their paper, they use a metaphor of fast food feedback vs. a well-balanced diet of feedback, advocating for a move away from the idea of fast feedback.

“Fast food can be cooked and eaten quickly; it is usually standardised and mass produced, eaten alone and quickly forgotten, rich in calories but poor in nutrition. Massification and a focus on the modular level in Higher Education has led to a systemic tendency towards quick and easy feedback (Bailey and Garner, 2010). These simple directions in feedback are often very restricted, solely commenting on the specific task at hand. What may be missing is the harder to digest ‘dietary fibre’ of carefully worded criticism, the judicious vitamins of insightful praise and the corrective diet of comments linked to previous consumption” (p. 6)

Wilder-Davis et at. (2021) acknowledge the challenges associated with moving away from the fast-food feedback and offer seven (7) principles to assist educators in ‘changing their dietary habits’ - 

1. We need a ‘slow food’ approach. 

Educators need to be encouraged to spend time on quality feedback; one way of doing this is decreasing the number of assessments, and replacing them with “fewer more nutritious” (p. 9) ones.

2. We need to plan our menu to flow from one course to the next.

Educators need to intentionally design opportunities for students to carry forward their feedback from one unit to the next, enabling them to make connections and engage in dialogue about their ongoing learning.

3. Students need to taste different flavours of assessment and feedback, although a few ingredients will predominate.

Students should be exposed to multiple forms of assessment and feedback styles however, they may also need some context specific consistency along the way.

4. Students may need to be taught to make use of the ingredients of feedback.

Educators need to focus on feedback literacy and enable students to become active participants in feedback.

5. Students need the chance to develop more sophisticated palates over time.

Programmatic feedback offers the opportunity to remove feedback support scaffolds over time so that students develop the ability to independently evaluate and improve their work.

6. Meals are a chance for conversation.

Feedback should be part of an ongoing conversation, in multiple formats across the program.

7. We need to help students take ownership of the cooking process.

Students need to understand what feedback is, the purpose of it, how to use it, and ultimately become comfortable with using it as a learning tool.

Read the full paper - From fast food to a well-balanced diet: toward a programme focused approach to feedback in higher education.

Listen to a podcast about the paper (16.55mins) - Designing Program-Focussed Feedback in Higher Education (generated by Google LM Notebook).

Carmen Sapsed - Educational designer, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Science

(A note from Carmen - large quotes were used in this edition of Education Insight because the use of the metaphor throughout the article was so wonderfully written that there was simply no better way to convey the message!)

References:

Heeneman, S., de Jong, L. H., Dawson, L. J., Wilkinson, T. J., Ryan, A., Tait, G. R., … van der Vleuten, C. P. M. (2021). Ottawa 2020 consensus statement for programmatic assessment – 1. Agreement on the principles. Medical Teacher, 43(10), 1139–1148. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2021.1957088

Wilder-Davis, K., Carless, D., Huxham, M., McCune, V., McLatchie, J., Jessop, T., Marzetti, H., (2021). From fast food to a well-balanced diet: toward a programme focussed approach to feedback in Higher Education. Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 14(1), 3-15.