An analysis of the social construction of feedback by staff and students in a post 1992 university

This thesis is a small scale qualitative study of the ways in which 151 and 3rd year undergraduates studying in a post 1992 British university and a group of academic staff from the same university construct the idea of good feedback on written work. The research was carried out using semi-structured interviews with individual participants which were audio recorded, transcribed and then analysed using NVivo 9. An extensive literature review was conducted which located the origins of feedback in behavioural psychology and systems engineering as well as in the field of cybernetics and second order cybernetics with its links to constructivist theories of learning. The work of Foucault is drawn on to provide an analytical framework which focuses on the themes of discourse, power, identity and emotion and these themes are tracked through the comments of the staff and student participants. What emerges from the data analysis is that whilst both staff and students have well established discourses relating to feedback there is significant divergence in relation to the themes of power and identity, which the staff attach considerable significance to and identity and emotions which the students see as important. The contrasting emphasis which the thematic analysis highlights are discussed in detail firstly in relation to the student perspectives and then that of the staff before a synthesis of both perspectives is provided. It is proposed that the solution to the problems inherent in such divergent views on feedback as those identified amongst the student and staff participants, lies in a greater use of dialogic forms of feedback in which knowledge and learning in relation to feedback is co-constructed by staff and studentsEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo