2.1.5
Participants in the assessment process
A large number of individuals are involved in the different areas of the assessment process. According to the AERA (1999) these include test developers, test users, test takers, admin- istrators and policy makers. The people involved can be classified into the following four stakeholder groups:
• Student– anyone engaged in learning
• Teacher– anyone engaged directly in facilitating learning: includes teaching assistants, associate lecturers
• Manager – anyone responsible for the organisation or administration of teachers: includes departmental-level and institutional-level management (e.g. managers, admin- istrators, heads of department, Deans, executive officers (CEOs), presidents, principals, Headteachers and their deputies)
• Policymaker – anyone responsible for the setting of policy, whether at a local, regional, state, national, or transnational/intergovernmental level and including funders.
The student is the closest to the learning activity. Hattie’s synthesis of over 800 meta- analyses relating to students achievement revealed that teachers have the most singular influence on students’learning and achievement (Hattie, 2008). There is therefore the need to have assessment systems designed to support teachers in assessing their students effectively, efficiently, and fairly.
2.2
Feedback
Learning depends on feedback (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Whatever the type of assess- ment, feedback on students’ performance represents an indispensable element in the learning process. Several investigators have argued that adequate feedback presented in a timely fashion may improve and accelerate student learning (Bescherer et al., 2011; Fyfe et al., 2012).The benefits of feedback have been described by many writers (Brown et al., 2014; Hat- tie and Timperley, 2007; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). They agree that feedback makes students aware of gaps that exist between their desired goal and their current knowledge, aids understanding (Sadler, 1989), enables deeper learning during problem solving (Mayer, 1998) and when provided in good time provides an optimal form of guidance (Bloom, 1956). On the other hand, it has been suggested that feedback can be counterproductive if it is
2.2 Feedback 19
generalised or cheap praise (Walker 1931), grade only marking (Black and William, 1998), grade and unclear comment (Black and William, 1998). Most researchers, however, agree that feedback is beneficial if it is timely, positive, objective and specific. Feedback comes from different sources; peers, teachers and parents (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). This study will focus on teacher feedback to students about their learning.
2.2.1
Principles of effective feedback
Effective marking and feedback would address the seven principles of good feedback practice suggested by Nicol and colleagues (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Nicol and Milligan, 2006b). According to them the seven principles of good feedback are:
• Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards)
• Facilitates the development of reflection and self-assessment in learning
• Delivers high-quality feedback that helps learners self-correct.
• Encourages interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student)
• Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
• Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance
• Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching
These seven feedback principles have been recognised as important guides in the study of feedback in students’ assessments. Gibbs and Simpson (2004) advocates that students should be provided with challenging learning with clear goals and standards which encourage learning. They further state that sufficient, high-quality feedback received on time will help focus learning and feed-forward to future studies.
2.2.2
Blooms taxonomy
The Bloom’s Taxonomy proposed by Bloom (1984) describes a list of cognitive skills that is used to determine the level of thinking students have achieved. The taxonomy ranks the cognitive skills on a continuum from lower-order thinking to higher-order thinking. This is shown in Figure 2.3. This hierarchical taxonomy structure lists six levels of thinking and learning skills that range from basic learning objectives such as knowledge of content through higher-order learning such as synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.
2.2 Feedback 20
Fig. 2.3 The Blooms’ taxonomy (Bloom, 1984)
Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), broke down the Bloom’s taxonomy to further components to help provide an understanding of the base of knowledge. His modification identified four major classes of knowledge namely:
• Factual knowledge – Terminology, dates, elements
• Conceptual knowledge – Classifications, categories, principles, generalisations, theo- ries, models and structures
• Procedural knowledge – Subject specific skills, algorithms, techniques, methods, criteria for use of specific techniques
• Metacognitive knowledge – Strategic, contextual, conditional knowledge, self-knowledge
These classes help educators distinguish more closely what they teach and, by implication what they should assess and provide feedback on. By providing the hierarchy of levels, this taxonomy can assist teachers in designing performance tasks, crafting questions for engaging with students, and providing feedback on student work.
2.2 Feedback 21
2.2.3
Models of feedback
Hattie and Timperley (2007) provided a model for understanding the effectiveness of feed- back. Their analysis of empirical studies on different kinds of feedback indicates that feedback may be focused on the task, the processes needed to do the task, and on self- regulationmechanisms. McAlpine (2002) earlier referred to the first two feedback types as product and process type assessments. The three levels of feedback as described by Hattie and brown are depicted in Figure 2.4.
Fig. 2.4 Closing the feedback gap (Hattie and Brown, 2012)
The figure describes the main aim of feedback as closing the gap between the current level of understanding and desired success criteria. Essentially, effective feedback ‘provides opportu- nities to close the gap between current and desired performance’(Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006, 205). The three feedback levels are steps to achieving the purpose. The main purpose of providing feedback is to give information to the students about where they achieved success in relation to the learning intentions and where they might improve.
I Task or product level
This is the most common type of feedback we see in classrooms. It is more information- focused and aims to help students build their factual or surface knowledge. Examples
2.2 Feedback 22
include telling a student when an answer is correct or incorrect or asking the student to provide more of or different information (Hattie and Timperley, 2007; McAlpine, 2002).
II Process level
This type of feedback is targeted at helping the student improve the process used to create the product. This feedback can help the student develop learning strategies, detect errors, or recognize relationships. When assessing a process, teachers may be interested in examining students’ cognitive processes as well (Mory, 2004). Teachers can learn a great deal about a student’s thinking by assigning a process task. Studies have shown that a deep understanding of learning involves the construction of meaning and relates more to the relationships, cognitive processes, and transference to other more difficult or untried tasks (Hattie and Timperley, 2007; McAlpine, 2002).
III Self-regulation
This is a self-directive process by which students transform their mental abilities into academic skills. It addresses the way students monitor, direct, and regulate actions toward the learning goal. Also, it implies autonomy, self-control, self-direction, and self-discipline. According to Zimmerman et al. (2000) self-regulation involves self- generated thoughts, feelings, and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment of personal goals. This can lead to seeking, accepting, and accommodating feedback information.
Table 2.1 presents questions that may be asked relating to the different levels of feedback. To answer these questions, teachers need varied assessment types to help provide them with evidence which will help to inform their future decisions about their teaching.