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Send to friendTemporal separation of feedback from grades
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Assessment and feedback
In our teaching environment and many others, the most common source of feedback on written work for students is commentary or 'marginalia' accompanied by a grade. However, when the two are provided together, students tend to show much more interest in the grade than the feedback. Indeed, they often largely neglect the written feedback after they have determined their grade.
Studies discussed by Black and William (1998) show that comments accompanied by grades often lead to reduced learning in comparison to comments without grades, and that indeed grades may act as a barrier to student understanding. For this reason, we have trialed providing students with these two types of information at separate times. An example concerns an essay that students write in the middle of semester. The essay is returned to the students on a Friday, with only commentary and feedback included. A matrix of scores pertaining to the essay, and the final marks, is uploaded for viewing to the subject website early in the following week, after the students have had time to read and assimilate the feedback.
We have not yet formally evaluated the effectiveness of this initiative, but student comments give an indication of how it has been received. Although we let the students know in advance that their essays will be returned to them with feedback only, a few remain baffled (and some cases, deeply frustrated) at the absence of a grade accompanying feedback on the essay. Several however, have commented that they appreciated the opportunity to absorb this feedback in a context that is unaffected by the emotion (either positive or negative) associated with finding out their grade.
It is unclear whether or not the initiative has made very much difference in what has been learnt from the written feedback. However, we hope that the unusual nature of this practice may at least have given students cause to reflect on the purpose of feedback comments (as a source of constructive criticism, rather than as justification of the associated grade).
We intend to carry out an evaluation of this approach next year when the subject is offered again.
Reference
Black, P., & William D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment.
Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148.
