Biology students’ utilization of tutors’ formative feedback: a qualitative interview study

Ramaprasad (1983 Ramaprasad, A. (1983). On the definition of feedback. Behavioural Sciences, 28: 4–13. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]) defined feedback as information about the gap between actual performance level and the reference level, which is subsequently used to alter that gap. Feedback, therefore, needs to be meaningful, understood and correctly acted upon. Tutors not only have to give feedback; they should really evaluate how effective their feedback has been. This study reports the findings of semi‐structured interviews with third year biology students on their utilization of tutor feedback. We show that students use feedback in six ways. Four specific uses were (a) to enhance motivation; (b) to enhance learning; (c) to encourage reflection; and (d) to clarify understanding. Two further forms of usage were, firstly, to enrich their learning environment and, secondly, to engage in mechanistic enquiries into their study. The findings are discussed in the context of current literature and specific recommendations are given as to how the impact of tutors’ feedback could be enhanced.     

Feedback alignment: effective and ineffective links between tutors’ and students’ understanding of coursework feedback

Tutors’ intentions when providing feedback may not be accurately perceived and acted on by students. In this study, 19 biological sciences students and six tutors were interviewed concerning the tutor’s intentions when providing specific feedback and the students’ perceptions and usage of that feedback. A phenomenological approach was used to analyse the interview data. Additionally, copies of the documented feedback were examined and the feedback style was classified. Student conceptions of the role of feedback included providing guidance, identifying what the tutor wants and giving meaning to the work to develop learning. Analysis of tutor feedback styles indicates that tutors were focussed on giving praise and correcting misunderstandings in the present assignment. Since developmental aspects of students’ learning were rarely addressed in tutor feedback, these findings suggest some misalignment in feedback provision. Tutors need to provide more guidance to students regarding the use of feedback, possibly by introducing better scaffolding and variation into their feedback.     

The identification of students’ alternative conceptions in biology by the use of creative writing

Children, Power and Schooling. How Childhood is Structured in the Primary School By Dympna Devine Trentham Books Ltd. 2003, ISBN: 1 85856 271 6 (pbk)     

Closing the feedback loop: physics undergraduates’ use of feedback comments on laboratory coursework

The laboratory notebooks of physics undergraduates taking two second-year practical courses were audited to discover whether they had used feedback comments in their subsequent coursework. Ninety-five per cent of the 37 students on the first course and 100% of the 14 students on the second course whose work was audited had used feedback. The marker’s comments were classified into two groups based on whether they addressed simple (mastery) or complex (developmental) learning outcomes. Mastery comments were more likely to be acted on than developmental comments which aimed to extend students’ skills and understanding to higher levels. This has implications for the use of feedback audit as a quality control process, since the feedback which is most commonly applied by students is not the most valuable for the development of higher order skills. Following reflection on the results for the first course, students taking the second course were given responsibility for checking their peers’ notebooks against preset criteria. Peer checking improved students’ marks but did not eliminate the need for mastery feedback. It is argued that a direct audit of students’ use of feedback is particularly valuable when undertaken by the teacher who provides the feedback.     

Minding mathematicians’ discourses in investigations of their feedback on students’ proofs: a case study

Educational Studies in Mathematics - This article presents a research apparatus for investigating and making sense of stories that emerge from feedback that mathematicians provide on...     

Conceptualizing students’ academic hardiness dimensions: a qualitative study

Academic hardiness is a personality characteristic that may differentiate students who avoid challenging academic course work from others who are willing to pursue these types of challenges. Research findings have demonstrated the need to understand and examine the construct in different life stages and cultural settings, and there are additional aspects of the construct that have yet to be identified. The purpose of this study was to explore the possible dimensions of academic hardiness and its components (commitment, control, and challenge) using qualitative methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 primary school children (aged 10–12 years old). They were asked to narrate and reflect on their experience about school failure and low grade in a test in a school lesson. The findings demonstrate that students differ as to the way they face the negative experience, as results showed that a variety of factors were related with students’ academic hardiness. The findings are discussed in relation to the recent literature.     

The role of students’ emotions in formal feedback situations

A growing, but still relatively small body of research underscores the importance of attending to students’ experiences and emotions in higher education. One specific context in which emotions have a focal role is formal feedback situations. The aim of this paper is to provide a literature overview on the role of emotions, in sociology in general and learning in particular, and to draw on this literature in order to tentatively suggest how the role of students’ emotions can increasingly be accounted for in the context of feedback situations. The claim of the paper is that emotions should not be considered as hindering learning. Rather, it underlines the focal role of emotions in learning as being a natural part of it. The paper suggests that learning activities such as ‘feedback preparation activities’ and ‘feedback-on-the-feedback’ can be helpful in order to acknowledge students’ emotions in formal feedback situations.     

Teachers’ use of research evidence in practice: a pilot study of feedback to enhance learning

Background: There is worldwide interest in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching. This paper considers two strands of that interest. It revisits the impact of using enhanced feedback from teachers to pupils as a way of improving attainment, and it looks at the feasibility of teachers using research evidence to create their own interventions. Current evidence on the causal impact of effective feedback on learning is unclear: many studies have mixed results, are small in scale, lack randomisation or are not conducted in real classroom conditions. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to describe the experience of schools as they engage with research evidence to support their own enquiry into the effectiveness of feedback in the classroom. Research design: This study took place over one academic year, involving nine treatment schools in one local authority. The study involved teachers themselves using research findings to create an intervention, which took, as its focus, enhanced feedback in the classroom. Test results from these schools were compared to the results in 5 participating comparator schools, to the 49 other schools in the borough and to all state-funded primary schools in England. Results: Although teachers showed that they could engage with research evidence, the study indicated that the process was complex in practice. In addition, the independent impact evaluation suggested that enhanced feedback in itself does not necessarily lead to improved pupil test performance. Discussion and conclusions: The paper considers some of the challenges faced by teachers as they attempted to use research evidence, and discusses implications for schools wishing to use research evidence in practice. The findings of the study suggest that it may be feasible for practitioners to use research evidence to inform their own practice. However, to do it well would require clearer guidance, professional development and modelling of any strategies suggested. These findings have implications for policy on teacher development, and for the research community to make research outputs more comprehensible and accessible to research users.     

The quality of written peer feedback on undergraduates’ draft answers to an assignment,and the use made of the feedback

The research described here investigated the quality and characteristics of peer feedback given on a draft piece of writing in the context of an undergraduate summative assignment. It also investigated whether the recipients made use of the feedback, with the aim of discovering whether some types of feedback were used in preference to others. The peer feedback was characterised in various ways, and then a comparison with the feedback subsequently given on the polished piece of writing by the tutor was used to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the peer feedback. Although the peers’ feedback had some different characteristics from that of the tutors, it was nevertheless of good quality. The examination of the use the recipients made of the feedback showed that much feedback was ignored. The use recipients made of the feedback depended very little on the characteristics of the feedback received, but did vary strongly across the recipients. The ability level of the recipients was not found to be a factor in this variation. The results of this research suggest that future work needs to focus more on students using feedback than on students giving feedback.     

Psychology students’ perception of and engagement with feedback as a function of year of study

Undergraduate students’ perception of feedback and level of engagement with the feedback they receive have gained increasing attention in the educational literature recently to identify areas which require educators’ attention. However, research in this area has generally been based on limited self-selecting samples, and has not considered how students’ relationship with feedback may alter depending on their year of study. To address this, a survey measuring students’ views and practices regarding feedback was completed at a higher education institution by 447 first-, second- and third-year psychology students, representing 77% of the cohort. Findings revealed that third years responded more negatively in both areas than their first- and second-year counterparts, whose ratings on these aspects themselves were far from optimal. These findings highlight the need for early interventions to improve students’ perception of and engagement with feedback in the earlier years, and to prevent the recorded deterioration later on in the degree course.     

Science teachers’ mission impossible?: a qualitative study of obstacles in assessing students’ practical abilities

Science teachers regard practical work as important and many claim that it helps students to learn science. Besides theoretical knowledge, such as concepts and formulas, practical work is considered to be an integral and basic part of science education. As practical work is perceived and understood in different ways, comparing the results between classes and schools is difficult. One way of making the results comparable is to develop systematic inquiries to be assessed in national large-scale tests. However, introducing similar testing conditions in a laboratory environment is not always possible. Although the instructions and assessment guides for such tests are detailed, many obstacles need to be overcome if equality in the overall test situation is to be achieved. This empirical case study investigates two secondary school science teachers’ assessments of 15–16 years old students in three separate groups in the practical part of a Swedish national test in chemistry. Data are gathered using two video cameras and three pairs of spy camera glasses. The results show that individual and independent assessments are difficult due to the social interactions that take place and the physical sources of errors that occur in this type of setting.     

A study of Korean middle school students’ interests in biology and their implications for biology education

This study analyses middle school students’ interests in biology to provide information on instructional strategies and curriculum development in Korea. An instrument that measures interests was developed based on the middle school biology curriculum. It consists of 64 three‐point Likert‐type items (scores range from 0 to 2). The two components, ‘topic’ and ‘activity’, are composed of 64 items. The topic component and the activity component contain 11 domains and six domains respectively. Data were collected from 267 middle school students in Seoul (male: 169, female: 107). The levels of interest in topic and activity were almost the same and not high. The highest interest domains were ‘genetics’ in topics and ‘observing through a microscope’ in activities. The interest levels in the domain ‘plant morphology’ and ‘plant‐related activity’ were the lowest in each component. The interest level of the eighth graders was the highest found among students. Interest levels of females were lower than those of males in ‘environment and ecosystem’, ‘animal reproduction’ and ‘animal morphology’, but higher in ‘plant morphology’ and ‘plant related activity’ (p < 0.05). Among the topics, the ‘human biology’ domain correlated positively with the domains ‘genetics’, ‘environment and ecosystem’ and ‘respiration of animal and plant’. The correlation between the domains of ‘plant reproduction and nutrition’ and ‘plant development’ was significant in ‘activity’ (r > 0.50, p < 0.001). Consistencies in interests were suggested with respect to instructional strategy and curriculum design.     

The importance of socio-cultural context for understanding students’ meaning making in the study of genetics

In this rejoinder to Ann Kindfield and Grady Venville’s comments on our article “Reconsidering conceptual change from a socio-cultural perspective: Analyzing students’ meaning making in genetics in collaborative learning activities,” we elaborate on some of the critical issues they raise. Their comments make apparent some of the crucial differences between a socio-cultural and a socio-cognitive approach towards conceptual change. We have selected some issues that are addressed, either implicitly or explicitly, in their comments. The main issues discussed are talk and interaction as data, the significance of context in interaction studies, the feasibility of generic claims in small-scale interaction studies, and the difference between studying students’ understanding of science concepts as opposed to studying the construction of meaning.

The construction of a double-entry table: a study of primary and secondary school students’ difficulties

Tables are a presentation format that is commonly used to organize information, and they are widely present in many scenarios of our students’ everyday activities; however, there is a scarcity of studies devoted to their analysis. Some of these studies point out that the organization of data into a double-entry table presents difficulties for primary and secondary school students. The present study analyzes the following: (1) the level of competency of primary and secondary school students in constructing a double-entry table from a set of data and (2) the main difficulties encountered by these students during the task. Our findings showed that the percentage of middle-school students who succeeded in contructing a conventional table was relatively low, and the number did not significantly increase over four school years. A set of difficulties is identified and discussed in terms of cognitive and graphical processes.     

The influence of university students’ learning beliefs on their intentions to use mobile technologies in learning: a study in China and Spain

Educational technology research and development - As an emerging learning method, mobile technologies allow students to gain knowledge via both formal and informal learning. In spite of the...     

To do or not to do with feedback. A study of undergraduate students’ engagement and use of feedback within a portfolio assessment design

Feedback is important for student learning; however, research shows that students can have a number of difficulties when attempting to learn from feedback. Based on an in-depth analysis of undergraduate students’ self-reported reflection logs, we present findings about students’ experiences with oral and written feedback and how they act upon this feedback when a portfolio is the main assessment and learning tool. Our findings indicate that, within our context, students’ overall experiences with receiving feedback are positive. Oral feedback was perceived as particularly valuable to the students while written feedback challenged their understanding. We identified four specific actions the students engaged in to create meaning from the feedback: internal feedback, using oral feedback, initiating dialogue and interacting with peers. The findings indicate that the students take responsibility in the feedback process. The findings are discussed in relation to current perspectives on feedback in higher education.     

‘Selective cosmopolitans’: tutors’ and students’ experience of offshore higher education in Dubai

As the offshore mobility of higher education has increased in recent times, the question of how it interacts with the recipient cultures has become ever more significant. Using ethnographic methods, this empirical study examined the adaptation of the UK teacher education model – the Postgraduate Certificate in Education – to the context of Dubai. The study asks ‘how do students and tutors experience the adaptation of British education in the context of Dubai?’ This paper will argue that tutors and students in offshore Dubai teacher education are ‘selective cosmopolitans’ who negotiate cross-cultural influences pragmatically and ambivalently. The study addresses a significant gap in the literature, as there is little written on the internationalisation of higher education in the context of Gulf Cooperation Council countries. There is also an inadequate appreciation of the role of local culture and religion in offshore education and tutors and students’ role as active agents in negotiating cross-cultural dynamics in the offshore educational setting.     

The development of students’ ways of thinking and practising in three final-year biology courses

Findings are presented from an ongoing study of three final-year, honours-level course units in the biosciences with a combined intake of 85 students. The data on which the analysis draws comprise semi-structured interviews with students together with findings from an Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire. The investigation forms part of a wider project concerned with the enhancement of teaching–learning environments in undergraduate courses in contrasting subject areas. The findings presented in the paper focus on two interrelated aspects of the students experiences within the teaching–learning environments represented by the three course settings. First, salient aspects of high-quality undergraduate-level learning are identified in the form of the students evolving grasp of characteristic ways of thinking and practising in the subject. These ways of thinking and practising in the biosciences were evident in the students engagement with the research literature and with experimental data, and in their efforts to master the requirements and conventions of the subject for written and oral discourse. The second part of the analyses focuses on the teaching–learning environments represented by the three course settings. It was found that, despite taking markedly different forms in the three settings, the teaching–learning and assessment strategies pursued appeared to be broadly congruent with the promotion of ways of thinking and practising in the subject. The quality of feedback to students also seemed pivotal, but needed to be understood in terms of the interplay of various factors, including opportunities for intrinsic as well as extrinsic feedback. Finally, the later years of undergraduate studies had called for a significant process of adjustment on the students part to a step-change in study demands.     

Relations between students’ perceptions of the teaching-learning environment and teachers’ approaches to teaching: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, a constructivist view of learning has triggered a change in teaching-learning environments (TLEs). Teacher-centred TLEs have been replaced by student-centred ones where the teachers’ approaches to teaching are more learning- than content-focused. Previous research exploring the relationship between student-centred TLEs and the quality of learning has shown contradictory results. Previous studies also indicate that various elements of TLEs may influence students’ learning. This study explored course-level types of elements, enhancing or hindering, related to TLEs, which the course students described. The TLEs of the courses varied because the teachers adopted different types of approaches to teaching. The data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students (N = 33) from three compulsory courses. The interviews were designed so that students could describe their perceptions of the course as well as their learning experiences and processes. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that when the teacher employed a consonant learning-focused approach to teaching, the students perceived almost all elements of the TLE as enhancing. When the teacher’s approach to teaching was identified as dissonant, the students perceived several elements of the TLE as hindering. This study revealed that inclusion of student-activating teaching-learning activities is important when designing TLEs, but that it is also crucial to design elements which guide and structure students’ learning.

Abbreviation: TLE: teaching-learning environment