Project Investigator(s): Jaclyn Stewart, Senior Instructor, Chemistry; Gary Bull; Holly Munn; Stephen Ney; Jeanie Rhemtulla; Robin Stoodley
Project Description
This project will investigate students’ responses to feedback in multiple disciplines and across year levels. We seek to understand how feedback messages interact with student’s individual knowledge and cultural background to produce learning through the writing revision process. This project will inform instructional best practices that aim to help students transfer their learning to demonstrate their competency in written communication. The applicant team teaches courses with substantial written assignments, that play a key role in developing students’ communication skills in several undergraduate programs. Our results will be applicable within UBC and to those who teach writing in the disciplines.
Research Questions
1. What are the characteristics of feedback messages that promote understanding and reflection? 2. What are the barriers to understanding and acting on feedback? 3. What do educators need to take into account when offering feedback on writing, specifically about how to provide a useful amount of feedback without overwhelming students. Exploring these questions in the context of writing-intensive disciplinary courses is important because students may approach their work in these courses differently than composition or English courses. By conducting interviews, we will get a sense of the extent to which students understand the feedback related to the quality of their own work.
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
Feedback on student work can be ineffective at producing learning gains, or worse ignored altogether. Our findings will be used to update the Writing Across the Curriculum+ Program workshop on providing effective feedback, presented at a Faculty of Science Supper Series seminar, presented at least one external conference, and published as a journal article. Thus, this work will update the literature on writing feedback best practices, and be useful to all post-secondary educators who teach communication. By participating in this collaborative project, our instructional practices will improve as we identify opportunities to improve our feedback practices.