When Less is More: Writing Feedback that Works for Students and Teachers

Description

When Less is More: Writing Feedback that Works for Students and Teachers Robert McKay will be discussing his research with 24 members of the School of English at a Russell Group University (12 staff and 12 students) involving around 40 loosely structured interviews staged across two semesters. The interviews focused on 36 essays submitted by the student participants in years 1 and 3 of BA programmes and marked by the staff. Participants were asked to explain their understanding of the meaning of all written feedback on the essays. Interviews were then analysed to assess the effectiveness of different kinds of written feedback (guaged in terms of the learning outcomes intended by markers' comments being understood and achieved by students). The results of the research include a report detailing effective and ineffective forms of feedback comment, practical suggestions for feedback practice on essay based assessments, and more broadly a review of the role and impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research on practice in a UK HE department. Robert McKay is University Teacher in the School of English at the University of Sheffield. His Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research focuses on theoretical approaches to inquiry-based learning and on assessment practice in Literature education; he is also one of the team behind The Acadmic Skills Hub, a web-based encyclopaedia of academic learning skills. His literary research concerns the representation of animals and human-animal relations. http://www.shef.ac.uk/departments/academic/english2/staff/mckay.html http://www.tash.group.shef.ac.uk/