Are the principles of effective feedback transferable across disciplines? A comparative study of written assignment feedback in Languages and Technology

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation into the written feedback provided by tutors on Language assignments, together with students’ responses to it. The study replicates a previous study of assignment feedback in Technology, in order to determine the extent to which the characteristics underlying common feedback practice and students’ perceptions of effective feedback vary according to discipline. Drawing on two Spanish modules, the researchers analysed over 4000 feedback comments on 72 scripts, identifying their category and depth in accordance with the classification used in the Technology study. With regard to categories, it was found that Language tutors’ comments related more to skills development than to content, the opposite tendency to that observed in Technology. With regard to depth, corrections formed a lower proportion of Language tutors’ comments, but the proportions indicating errors and providing explanations were both greater than in Technology. This analysis was followed by interviews with 20 of the students whose assignment feedback had been analysed. The differences and similarities between the ways feedback is perceived by students of Languages and Technology are discussed. The authors conclude that a methodological approach involving cross-subject replication is a powerful means of uncovering subject-specific assumptions on assignment feedback.

Keywords:

• assignment feedback
• student perceptions
• effective feedback
• depth of feedback

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the associate lecturers who helped them to carry out the telephone interviews, the tutors whose feedback was analysed, the students who participated in the interviews, and the colleagues and referees whose comments strengthened the paper. The work described here was supported by the Open University’s Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology, one of the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.