Improving the student experience through feedforward dialogic assessment

Assessment exercises a major influence on student learning and achievement (Boud 2007). Yet QAA subject reviews identify assessment practices as one of the weakest features of Higher Education (Rust et al. 2005). In terms of the student learning experience the feedback process following assessment is the least satisfactory element. This is exemplified in consistently low satisfaction scores for assessment and feedback in the National Student Satisfaction surveys, where most concern surrounds the timeliness, quality and effectiveness of feedback. The research presented here is based on the premise that feedback should occupy a central position within a dialogic approach to learning, teaching and assessment (Alexander 2004). We adopt a qualitative case study approach, undertaking semi-structured interviews with students from two consecutive cohorts who have undertaken dialogic feed-forward coursework on a second year undergraduate physical geography module in a British university. The assessment consists of submitting a considered draft of a coursework essay, which is discussed and evaluated face-to-face with the course tutor before a self-reflective piece is written about the assessment process and a final essay is submitted for formal grading. We test the social constructivist theory that if academic staff and students discuss feedback together students might learn to actively reflect upon feedback, developing their capacity to translate key content and ‘feeding forward’ this learning (Brown 2007). We examine whether this process asserts a positive influence on the student learning experience, in supporting student performance/achievement, and in potentially raising NSS scores related to feedback (Higgins et al. 2001, Sutton 2009