Towards student-centred feedback practices: evaluating the impact of a professional learning intervention in primary schools

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on the evaluation of the final year of a three-year professional learning intervention underpinned by a student-centred model of feedback. School leaders, teachers, and students in 13 Australian state schools participated in the research. The professional learning was contextualised in Year 3 English, with a focus on writing. Data from school leader, teacher and student interviews, researcher field notes, classroom observations and student assessments were analysed to evaluate the impact of the intervention. Findings show the professional learning intervention was positively valued by teachers and school leaders. Evidence from multiple sources suggests that although there was variability in the nature of implementation, teachers and school leaders overall reported substantial changes to knowledge, skills, and classroom practices. Importantly, the results highlight substantial improvements in student self-regulation and writing achievement, providing evidence of the intervention’s positive impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Feedback
• student-centred
• professional learning
• primary education
• evaluation of impact
• assessment for learning

Author Contributions

Cameron Brooks: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Supervision, Formal analysis, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing – Review and editing. Rochelle Burton: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Project Administration, Formal analysis, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing – Review and editing. Fabienne van der Kleij: Formal analysis, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing – Review and editing Annemaree Carroll: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Writing – Review and editing. John Hattie: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Writing – Review and editing.

Disclosure statement

There are no declarations of interest by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [CB]. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council [LP160101604]

Notes on contributors

Cameron Brooks

Cameron Brooks is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and lead researcher on the Australian Research Council linkage grant, Improving student outcomes: Coaching teachers in the power of feedback. He investigates the effects of the professional learning on teacher perceptions, teacher practice and student learning. Cam’s research interests include feedback, formative assessment, teaching and learning.

Rochelle Burton

Rochelle Burton is a Deputy Principal and Adjunct Fellow at the School of Education at UQ on secondment from the Queensland Department of Education. Rochelle is a researcher and school-based coach on the Australian Research Council linkage grant, Improving student outcomes: Coaching teachers in the power of feedback. Rochelle’s research interests are professional learning and student-centred approaches to classroom feedback.

Fabienne van der Kleij

Fabienne van der Kleij is a former Research Fellow at the School of Education at UQ. She has internationally recognised expertise in feedback as a critical aspect of formative assessment. Her research covers various topics in the area of formative assessment and teacher-student feedback interactions, including teacher and student perceptions of classroom assessment feedback, student engagement with feedback, and assessment for learning in classroom practice. In her more recent work, Dr van der Kleij has highlighted the importance of active student engagement with feedback.

Annemaree Carroll

Annemaree Carroll is a Professor in Educational Psychology at The University of Queensland. Her research activities focus on the motivational determinants underpinning children and adolescents’ educational, social and emotional outcomes and how to enhance their academic and emotional self-regulatory capacities. Professor Carroll is a Chief Investigator and Co-ordinator of Translational Outcomes within the ARC Special Research Initiative Science of Learning Research Centre.

John Hattie

John Hattie is Laureate Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, and Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leaders. His areas of interest are measurement models and their applications to educational problems, and models of teaching and learning. He has published and presented over 1000 papers, and supervised 200 theses students, and 50 books – including 18 on Visible Learning.