Evaluating alignment of student and tutor perspectives on feedback on language learning assignments

ABSTRACT

Feedback alignment is key to the effectiveness of formative feedback, but often tutors can only guess whether their feedback is consistent with students’ needs and expectations. This study aimed to identify areas of potential misalignment by bringing together self-reported data and feedback analysis. Two parallel surveys were conducted with 736 students and 96 tutors from a distance learning undergraduate programme in Language Studies to compare their self-reported attitudes and behaviours. Survey data were then triangulated through the analysis of 216 marked assignments using the feedback analysis categorisation tool (FACT) according to the orientation (focus on a weakness or a strength) and depth (layers of scaffolding) of feedback comments. Misalignment was most apparent in relation to feedback on strengths and mutual assumptions regarding feedback ownership. The findings support the need for a more dialogic approach to feedback and confirm the value of feedback analysis as a means of evaluating feedback alignment for sustainable assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Distance learning
• language learning
• assignment feedback
• feedback alignment
• scaffolding
• sustainable feedback

Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), a UK public body aiming to provide leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration. We also wish to thank Bea de los Arcos for her invaluable work in coding the FACT data, and Daniel Richards and Paul Grayson for their help with statistical analysis. Finally, we would like to thank all the students and tutors who agreed to take part in the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), a UK public body aiming to provide leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration.

Notes on contributors

María Fernández-Toro

María Fernández-Toro is a senior lecturer in Spanish at the Open University. She is the author of Training Learners for Self-Instruction (London: CILT, 1999) and co-author of D.I.Y Techniques for Language learners (London: CILT, 2001; with F. R. Jones). Her research publications focus on self-assessment, peer review and tutor feedback.

Concha Furnborough

Concha Furnborough was as a lecturer in Spanish at the Open University, where she led the production of several distance learning courses and oversaw the monitoring of tutor feedback to distance language learners until her retirement in 2016. Her publications include several papers on distance learners’ approaches to feedback.