My journey with faculty leadership and management.

I recently attended a breakfast where a guest speaker (I have forgotten his name) spoke about the hidden dangers of feedback provision.  His speech was targetted at managers providing feedback to their staff, however the information he was providing I related to the way we as a department provide feedback to our students.  From this breakfast, I took a week to notice the feedback my teachers were giving their students.  The feedback could be interpreted in a number of ways, and direct verbal feedback was the minority.

I also retrieved student assessment from the files to review the feedback that was recorded.  I was dismayed and amazed at the same time.  The range of feedback provided from nil to extensive demonstrated little consistency within classes, between teachers and across the department.  Secondly, the lack of specific feedback based on the criteria upon which the students are assessed.  Considering the criteria are based on exit standards and should not vary significantly, the feedback students receive on assessment should be aligned with the criteria upon which they are assessed.  Thirdly, I believe there was a significant inconsistency when comparing results achieved and feedback provided.  Students achieving Cs and Ds received significantly reduced feedback compared to As and Bs.  Of greater concern was the lack of corrective feedback aimed at improving the students achievement.

Today I asked two of my staff to facilitate a meeting where teachers reviewed the marking and feedback provided to a random selection of students from a specific subject.  From this review they were required to develop a set of suggested guidelines for feedback on assessment.  Reviewing these guidelines tonight I tend to agree with most.  The guidelines they suggest are:

1. Feedback comments need to be criteria / guideline specific
2. Teachers must write comments.
3. Suggestions for improvement should be noted throughout the submission.  This will justify marks allocated.
4. A 3 comment minimum – positive, negative, how to improve.
5. Establish a marking checksheet, would ensure teachers are consistent.
6. use student friendly language on criteria sheet – not the words noone can understand

Most of these I agree with, and can see them informing the development of a set of guidelines.  I’m concerned with the final suggestion.  Language on a criteria sheet is somewhat restricted.  More importantly, the criteria is the language of the subject and I would argue that the students should know what the terms mean.

From here we will develop te guidelines, but I will also use it to generate further discussion on how we are providing feedback to our students.