Feedback Is Central to Student Learning at University - Case Study Example

Name: Unit: Class: Lecturer Abstract The paper focuses on the feedback as a vital tool in higher education learning. This is achieved through looking at the background of feedback in the higher institutions and the benefits that are gained from it. The paper has been able to establish that feedback helps the students attain better grades in their studies, helps in student tutor interactions, encourages, reduces anxiety and acts as an expression of care. Feedback in higher education is faced with several challenges. Some of these challenges come from tutors while others are related to the students’ perception. These challenges are; timing, language and lack of congruence with the learning goals. Due to the importance of feedback, the feedback system should be more enhanced in higher learning institutes. One way to enhance is use of clear language, giving feedback as soon as possible and making sure that it is at par with learning goals. Students’ success can only be met in higher learning institutions that are concerned with meeting their needs. Feedback is an effective tool in meeting students’ needs.  Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 3 Background 4 Benefits of feedback 5 Interaction and participation tool 6 Encouragement 6 Reducing anxiety 7 Expressing care 7 Challenges associated with feedback 7 Recommendations 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Feedback is an essential tool used in the higher education learning. Feedback is the information that is given by tutors and lecturers regarding the student’s performance. Most of the institutions collect feedback from the students in an attempt to help and improve their quality of learning. It has been argued that having effective comments on the student work helps in improving the quality of learning for the student. Feedback plays an essential role in learning and student development. In learning, it is possible to get the context faster if the students are able to know how they are performing. This helps them in deciding on what to do in order to improve and even perform better. The knowledge and of having feedback helps the students psychologically. This acts to help them improve and work even harder. The main issue lies from the fact that students are in most cases dissatisfied with the feedback they get. This is due to the fact that the feedback may lack advice, being difficult to interpret or having an adverse effect on their confidence. This research will look at feedback as an essential tool for learning at the university. The paper will evaluate the use of student feedback on higher education and outline some of the potential benefits and challenges associated with this strategy (Anna, 2011). Background Changes that have occurred in the higher education have affected the way feedback is given. The high enrollments in the universities have severed the close bond between the students and lecturers. Studies have indicated that the level of teacher student ratios has increased making it difficult to have personal student-teacher interaction. The students’ level of engagement with education has also been on the decline. This leads to a call for redesigning the student-teacher engagement. Looking at engagement, it refers to the time and resources that the students are dedicating to learning. One of these tools is feedback which is a chance that teacher interact with the student regarding academic progress (Mutch, 2003). Feedback is also the only time that the teacher is able to have personal contact with the student development. The current trend has also led to a less supportive environment for students in the higher learning. Feedbacks have a high social and emotional impact on student learning. At the moment, great numbers of the students are studying far from homes. This trend often leads to students feeling isolated and lonely in the new surrounding. Having an effective feedback system helps in dealing with isolation among the foreign students. The feedbacks to the foreign students have a great emotional support and acts in providing personal contact (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Students who are enrolled at the higher education institutions faces a lot of emotional and social pressures. The challenges influence how they adjust to the new settings of higher education. To reduce these impacts, the interaction that they get from the teaching staff helps a lot. This interaction is mostly effected in the form of feedback (Anna, 2011). Benefits of feedback Most of the students in higher learning institutions values feedback in a high way. One of the benefits of feedback is its usefulness toward achieving good results. Having a well written feedback leads to the students working to correct their mistakes. The students are able to know where they have gone wrong and work in changing their approach. The student uses the feedback as a guideline to work hard in perfecting the performance (Chanock, 2000). Feedback can help the weak students realize where they are underperforming and work in getting better grades. Having feedback that is clear on what is expected for the student to perform is an important condition for success. Most of the weak students can be helped to avoid their attrition in higher education. When grading the students, there is a need for the tutors to comment on what the student needs to improve on so as to gain better results (Taras, 2003). Through the provision of feedback, the students are able to learn and achieve a better understanding. Interaction and participation tool Feedback is an important interaction tool between the lecturer and student. The feedback acts as a platform where students and lecturer can communicate on educational performance. Poor communication between the teachers and students lead to a barrier in students’ achievements. A high outcome is achieved where students and teachers have a high level of engagement. Feedback eliminates one-way mode of learning where there is minimal engagement of students with their tutors. There is a positive correlation between the students’ achievement and their interaction with the teaching staff. Feedback provides a means of teacher student engagement which helps in overall performance (Taras, 2003). Encouragement Most of the students require feedback so as to be encouraged in their performance. Lack of feedback can lead to loss of motivation among the students. Feedback serves to motivate the students toward the right direction in their academics. Learning is directly affected by motivation. Motivated students perform well in their studies compared to those who lack motivation. Feedback is likened with academic support. Motivation leads to a drive to achieve great outcomes for students. The students’ perception on the feedback affects the way they are motivated by it. Those who are angered by the performance remarks may work hard to improve or become discouraged and lose interest. Motivation and student emotion are related in a great way. They way the students are affected by the feedback determine their motivation (Anna, 2011). Reducing anxiety Education is related to the students’ emotions. When a student receives feedback, most of them feel encouraged. This feeling helps in reducing anxiety and fear. The students are able to feel that the tutors are interested in them. The feeling that the staff in the institution are interested in the way the student is performing makes them work toward attaining the grades expected. This leads to reduction in negative feelings among the students such as anxiety. Feedback is in most cases reassuring to the students. The feeling of reassurance leads to the students decreasing the confusion and fear in their performance. Having positive feelings is important to successful learning. Negative feelings inhibit the students’ performance in their studies (Anna, 2011). Expressing care When the students are able to get feedback from their tutors, they perceive them to be caring. For most of the students, having a caring and encouraging tutor helps a lot in improving the performance. In higher education, the students perceive the tutors as their guardians. Some of the students are from different nationalities. These are students who come from other countries and hence their tutors are their closest guardians. The teachers are supposed to help these students to cope with the education and their social problems. International students are in most cases isolated and feel lonely in their new surroundings. Feedback to these students acts as a close contact and shows that the tutors are caring (Anna, 2011). Challenges associated with feedback Some of the students do not read the feedback given by the tutors. This is attributed to the fact that some of the students and teachers treat feedback in isolation in the learning process. The students consider feedback as the teachers related and do not see how it can help them. This type of response to feedback renders it ineffective. Feedback is most effective when all the stakeholders are involved (Anna, 2011). Another challenge is the fact that most of the teaching staff does not know the right time to offer feedback. This leads to some of the staff giving feedback at the wrong time. Giving feedback at the right time is sometimes impossible since it takes time to grade and compile the students’ reports (Duncan, 2007). Another challenge is the language that is used in the feedback. Language is an important aspect in feedback for it to be communicative. In some instances, the tutors write comments in a language that is not clear to the students. The language used can only make sense to the lecturer but may fail to be available to students. This makes the feedback a communication that is only understood by one party only (Chanock, 2000). Feedback inn some cases is outside the learning goals. This is feedback that does not give the required action and explanation to the students. The feedback becomes hard to relate to the learning goal of the course. Recommendations There is a need to redesign the assessment in an effort to make the students attend to feedback. The assignments can be divided into stages and feedback given should be based on each stage. The students should be encouraged to show how they utilized the feedback given through documentation. This can help in students responding to the feedback. There is also need for the comments made to be comprehensible to the students (Chanock, 2000). Feedback should be provided as soon as possible to make sure that the students react to them. There should only be little time where the feedback is withheld. This helps in making students internalize and know the demands of the task. Language used in giving feedback should be simple and easy to comprehend. The language should be based on shared terminologies. This helps in making the students understand easily and act on the feedback. Feedback should also be directly related to the learning goals. The instructional part of feedback should be more enhanced than the correctional part to ensure good performance (Chanock, 2000). Conclusion Lack of useful feedback is a major hindrance in students’ performance in higher educations. The significance of feedback in the higher learning can not be underrated. Feedback is the source of encouragement, reducing anxiety, expressing care and enhancing interaction between the teaching staff and students. For international students, feedback is vital as they cope in a new environment. These students experience isolation and loneliness in their new surroundings. Feedback has to be communicated in a language that is understandable by students and the lecturer. Students are able to succeed in an environment where their needs are met. This can only be met through the use of effective feedback systems in higher learning institutions. References Anna, R. (2011). The personal dimension in teaching: why students value feedback, International Journal of Educational Management, 25(4), 343-36 Chanock, K. (2000). Comments on essays: do students understand what tutors write? Teaching in Higher Education, 5(1), 95–105. Duncan, N. (2007). Feed-forward: improving students use of tutor comments, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 32(3), 271-283. Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Mutch, A. (2003). Exploring the practice of feedback to students, Active Learning in Higher Education, 4(1), 24–38. Taras, M. (2003). To feedback or not to feedback in student self-assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 549-565. Read More