Following-Up On Feedback Through Repetition In Assessments

In practice, the student learning cycle involves learning, assessment and feedback. The student learns about a particular topic through a combination of lectures, research and/or action. They are then assessed on what they have learned and are given formative feedback on their performance. Unfortunately, the cycle seems to end at this point. A new topic is presented and the learning cycle repeats. This is typical of a module in which several different topics are covered over the course of a semester. However, some obvious questions emerge. What do the students do with the feedback? Do they really learn from it? How do we know? This paper proposes to follow-up on feedback by simply ensuring that a proportion of the next assessment covers material that students had difficulty with on the previous one. Students are informed of this fact so as to encourage them to actively engage with the feedback. Test results show a marked improvement in the students’ performance, particularly in the case of the repeated material, while student feedback responds favourably to this method of ensuring that the student learning cycle is properly completed. Details of the assessments, test results and student feedback, as well as some personal observations and discussions, are presented within