Abstract:
Formative feedback is generated by teachers as strategies to engage learners to constantly reflect on how they can approach, orient, and evaluate learning, which leads to successful learning outcomes. This project adopts a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of formative feedback strategies on students’ academic and psychological outcomes. Students from four courses (N=127) were invited to join the experimental group (with specific formative feedback strategies) or control group (without specific formative feedback strategies). In the experimental group, specific formative feedback strategies are carried out, including setting study goals, discussing performance criteria, self-assessment, one-minute reflection, teacher comments on process draft assignment to help students troubleshoot their own performance and self-correct. In the control group, courses were taught as usual. Artifacts related to students’ work, teacher reflective record, lesson video records, and teacher and observer’s dialogues were used to examine the effectiveness of these strategies. On evaluating academic outcome, content analysis of student assignment by SOLO Taxonomy and Bloom’s Taxonomy were used to evaluate the quality of the two course assignments (interim and final essay/project), which may tell the improvement by intra-comparison of individual students. To assess psychological outcomes, students were required to complete a questionnaire at the beginning (as baseline), in the interim and at the end of the course. The questionnaire consists of some motivation scales and open ended questions that ask about students’ perception of the formative feedback strategies. Teaching resources including exemplar lessons and instructional materials were developed for sharing the use of formative feedback widely in the HKIEd community.
Code:
T0123
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 Dec 2013
End Date:
30 Nov 2014
Status:
Completed
Result:
Psychological outcomes
The statistical analyses of the survey suggested that students who had undergone formative feedback interventions (experimental group) show higher levels of perceived social support from the teacher and behavioral engagement in learning activities, compared to the one who had not (control group). Student reflection after experiment suggested positive opinions about the formative feedback interventions in the course, especially regarding the teacher-student interaction and the varieties of feedback mechanisms. They valued the opportunities of self-reflection and self-evaluation, on-going dialogues, during- and after- class feedback which were said to motivate their interest in studying the course.
Academic Outcomes
It is notable that students from the experimental group demonstrate higher-level understanding than those from the control group. Three comparison (‘experimental group typical case’ versus ‘control group typical cases’; ‘experimental group highest cases’ verses ‘control group highest case’; ‘experimental group lowest cases’ verses ‘control group lowest case’) were made, and the experimental group almost always shows higher frequencies on suggesting ideas that show higher-level understanding in their essays than the control group.
Impact:
The current project suggests some evidence of positive learning outcomes regarding student motivation and engagement in learning. The implementation of formative teaching strategies was effective in promoting students' responsiveness to their own learning. The project has produced a variety of outputs, including the preparation of publication of two book chapters and a full set of instructional materials along with exemplar videos shared through a teaching website. The project has created an impact to the local and international academic and professional community at a time when learner-centered education has started to promote in higher education, it demonstrates the value of scholarship of teaching via its widely disseminated outputs.
Deliverables:
Books / Book Chapters / Journal Articles / Conference Papers
Lam, B. H. (2017). Constructing formative feedback strategies. In S. C. Kong, T. L. Wong, M. Yang, C. F. Chow, & K. H. Tse (Eds.), Emerging practices in scholarship of learning and teaching in a digital era. Springer. (ISBN 978-981-10-3344-5)https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811033421
Lam, B. H., Cheng, R. W. Y., & Yang, M. (2017). Formative feedback as a global facilitator: Impact on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and positive affect. In S. C. Kong, T. L. Wong, M. Yang, C. F. Chow, & K. H. Tse (Eds.), Emerging practices in scholarship of learning and teaching in a digital era. Springer. (ISBN 978-981-10-3344-5)https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811033421
Online Resources and Materials
Lam, B. H. (2014). Studying Formative Feedback Strategies to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes. Retrieved from http://www.ied.edu.hk/aclass/ (Research) on 2 December 2014 .
Lam, B. H. (2014). An instrument: The method of using SOLO Taxonomy to identify students’ levels of understanding from their essay.https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/eba8bf1d-e666-4d2a-b87c-26c4...
Presentations
Lam, B. H. (2015). Constructing formative assessment strategies. Presentation at sharing session of scholarship of learning and teaching, Leaning and Teaching Festival at HKIEd. The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 18 March 2015.
Lam, B. H. (2015). Constructing formative assessment strategies. Presentation at Seminar on scholarship of learning and teaching: Professional development, student learning, assessment, and technology. The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 27 October 2015.
Financial Year:
2012-13
Type:
TDG