Towards effective feedback: an investigation of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of oral feedback in classroom practice

ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined how teachers’ oral feedback in whole-class interactions is received, perceived and used by students to enhance learning. This paper details an in-depth study of secondary teachers’ and students’ reflective comments on classroom oral feedback. The study examined perceptions of teachers and students in English and mathematics classroom interactions. Key findings showed that much teacher feedback was not recognised by students, and that when feedback was recognised it was often not perceived as the teacher had intended. Further, feedback in mathematics was more often recognised and perceived as intended compared to English. If feedback is not received by students, or not perceived as intended by the provider, it is unlikely that the feedback message will achieve its intended effect of supporting student learning. The study provides evidence that feedback perceptions – and thus feedback effectiveness – are context-dependent, subject-dependent, and individual-dependent.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment for Learning
• oral feedback
• classroom interactions
• perceptions
• secondary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) values are calculated using a combination of data on parental occupation and education, remoteness of a school, percentage of indigenous students, and a combination of Language Background Other than English and percentage of parents who have not completed education beyond Year 9. The Average ICSEA value across Australia is 1000, with a standard deviation of 100. Source: http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/Guide_to_understanding_ICSEA.pdf.

2. There were 16 instances of the English teacher pausing the video, 12 of these instances were coded as feedback. In mathematics, there were 19 instances of the teacher pausing the video, 12 of these instances were coded as feedback. In instances where commentary in video pauses was not coded as feedback, teachers or students provided commentary or explanation as background to the context.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Catholic University through the Australian Catholic University Research Funding; Early Career Researcher Scheme (Grant number 903108-141).

Notes on contributors

Fabienne Van Der Kleij

Dr Fabienne Van Der Kleij is a formerResearch Fellow in the Assessment, Evaluation and Student Learning (AESL) research area in the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE), Australian Catholic University (ACU). Her research covers various topics in the area of formative assessment and teacher-student feedback interactions. Recent and ongoing research has focused on teacher and student perceptions of classroom feedback, formative assessment for diverse students, assessment for learning in classroom practice, and curriculum in the Australian context. Twitter: @FabiennevdKleij.

Lenore Adie

Dr Lenore Adie is Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Assessment, and a Senior Research Fellow at ILSTE, ACU. Her research focuses on assessment processes as these contribute to supporting teachers’ pedagogical practices and student learning across all phases of education. She has extensive professional experience working in schools as a teacher and in leadership positions, and in teacher education for over 30 years. Twitter: @LenoreAdie.