Balancing supportive relationships and developing independence: an activity theory approach to understanding feedback in context for master’s students

Abstract

Master’s students are expected to be self-regulating and independent learners. Dialogic feedback has been identified as one way of promoting such independence. There continues to be concern about the extent to which master’s students are achieving this level of functioning. This study aimed to identify feedback practices and contexts which facilitated student engagement and independence. Working with students as co-researchers, interviews were conducted with 27 master’s students from three programmes. Activity theory was used as an analytical tool to generate understanding of feedback in the social context of each programme. Findings indicate there can be tension between factors which promote dialogical feedback and those which promote independence, and that active dialogic feedback with staff may limit student engagement with peer feedback.

Keywords:

• Master’s students
• postgraduate taught
• dialogic feedback
• independent learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Principal's Teaching Award Scheme.

Notes on contributors

Gale Macleod

Gale Macleod is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Edinburgh, and current chair of the UKCGE working group on PGT students. Gale's research interests are Higher Education, parental engagement and young people excluded from school. Within all these areas her work focuses on pedagogical relationships and their impact on learner experiences.

Neil Lent

Neil Lent is a lecturer in university learning and teaching in the Institute of Academic Development at the University of Edinburgh. He is interested in enhancing assessment and feedback through better understanding higher education cultures and practices.

Xiaomeng Tian

Xiaomeng Tian completed his MSc Education in 2016. He is currently a PhD student at Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh.

Yunying Liang

Yunying Liang completed her MSc Education in 2016. She is now doing her PhD towards gender relations and higher education at School of Teacher Education at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Meredith Moore

Meredith Moore completed her MSc in Education in 2016. She is currently teaching Chemistry and Psychology to high school students at the Washington International School in Washington, DC.

Shrawani Sen

Shrawani Sen Completed her MSc Education in 2016 and is currently working as a Primary Coordinator for VIBGYOR group of Schools in Pune, India.