Article: Instructional Practices
Giving Feedback on Written Work
University of Toronto Teaching Assistants' Training Program
Elizabeth’s
Recommendation
There are many resources focused on how to give effective feedback, but I appreciate that this one pairs actionable strategies for the TA with attention to supporting students as they receive feedback.
A useful first step seems to be exposing students to the learning process, the rationale for feedback, and feedback itself. Inside the classroom, this can take the form of simple exposition alongside low-stakes writing activities and other active learning strategies that encourage students to see how feedback fits into the larger learning process.
- Discuss with students the general pedagogical worth of feedback and its place in the learning process so that students better value feedback (Pokorny and Pickford, 2010). Students, especially first and second year undergraduates, need to be made aware of the importance of consciously reflecting on feedback (Agius and Wilkinson, 2014).
- Manage expectations of students to ensure that they make the most of the feedback. Guiding students on the purpose of feedback, and how it can used in conjunction with other campus and learning resources to improve student performance and the add to the learning process, is crucial. Without this, many students may view feedback as being a singular avenue offering all the answers to improving their performance (Robinson, Pope, and Holyoak, 2013).
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