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A new approach to continuous assessment: Moving from a stressful sum of grades to meaningful learning through self-reflection
... Численні дослідження свідчать, що динамічний і безперервний характер формувального оцінювання дозволяє вчителю супроводжувати, контролювати і скеровувати індивідуальний освітній процес учнів, надавати конструктивний зворотній зв'язок для їх підтримки. Формувальне оцінювання чітке орієнтує учнів щодо досягнення навчальних цілей, розширює їх можливості для самостійного навчання, готує їх до відповідальності за власну освітню траєкторію, а також зменшує напругу та стрес, пов'язані з оцінюванням, і надає пріоритет прогресу в процесі навчання, а не формальним оцінкам (Rodríguez Rincón et al., 2024;Bellido-García et al., 2024;Dávila Ramírez et al., 2024). R. зробили огляд і аналіз наукових досліджень щодо ефективності формувального оцінювання за 50 років, від 1960-х до середини 2000-х рр. ...
This study identifies criteria for evaluating the pedagogical activity of biology teachers in secondary education institutions: informational, subject-based, methodological, motivational, self-educational, learning effectiveness, and self-assessment ability. Indicators have been developed for each of them, which include the main essential features of the criterion. The results of a study of the attitude of biology teachers, as an object of evaluation, to the proposed criteria and evaluation indicators are highlighted. The data were collected using an online survey. It was found that teachers who participated in the survey preferred communicative, subject-based, and methodological criteria for evaluating pedagogical activity. Motivational and informational criteria were underestimated, which took the last two places in the rating of assessments. The results of the study made it possible to draw conclusions about the need to use an integrated approach to assessment when assessing pedagogical skills, when not only the result of pedagogical work is evaluated, but also the process of pedagogical activity itself. This explains the need for further research into the need to move from the practice of assessing general qualities to assessing the components of a teachers’ pedagogical skills when evaluating a teacher’s work.
Background: Students from Bangladesh pursuing STEM education often encounter obstacles when tackling diverse mathematical problems within various educational settings. Frequently, they find themselves lacking the essential prerequisite knowledge and strong foundational skills necessary to engage with the teaching and learning resources utilized at the undergraduate level, resulting in a significant number of students needing to seek readmission annually. Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the determinants of academic achievement among university undergraduates majoring in mathematics in Bangladesh. Employing a mixed-method research approach, the study combines quantitative and qualitative data analysis to examine the viewpoints of both students and educators concerning these factors. The authors primarily emphasize classifying the factors that impact the efficacy of mathematics pedagogical methods. Methodology: The study is structured into three phases: i. An initial exploratory qualitative survey. ii. A quantitative triangulation survey. iii. Followed by explanatory semi-structured interviews. Findings: To begin, the initial qualitative survey identified significant factors that contribute to students' achievements and setbacks in mathematics. Subsequently, the quantitative analysis verified both similarities and distinctions in the perspectives of students and educators. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient analysis revealed that male students frequently exhibit inconsistency and a lack of enthusiasm for studying, resulting in subpar performance. Conversely, female students frequently cited challenges like the difficulty of connecting mathematical theories to real-world applications, heavy course loads, and limited resources as reasons for their academic difficulties. Lastly, insights from interviews with students highlighted their acknowledgment of inadequate study practices, excessive reliance on memorization, suboptimal teaching methods, low motivation, and external distractions as key factors leading to their struggles. They also recognized the importance of consistent practice, a solid comprehension of concepts, regular study routines, and effective learning strategies for successful mathematics education. In contrast, educators emphasized the significance of students having clear concepts, natural aptitude, motivation, and a sense of curiosity as pivotal elements for successful learning in mathematics. Conclusion: This conclusion suggests a new beginning in the realm of local mathematics pedagogy, achieved by scrutinizing teacher-student feedback about the factors influencing success and failure, considering the diverse individual and contextual variables at play. To foster mutual trust and understanding between students and teachers, it may be beneficial to engage in open discussions and interactions.
Criticism, or critical feedback, is considered rich bits of information about the student’s weaknesses, thinking, and learning. Despite its importance as part of formative assessment processes, this type of feedback is especially challenging for teachers to communicate as well as for students to uptake. The current conceptual analysis therefore highlights the substantial role that criticism plays in advancing students’ learning and progress. It presents a wide range of contrasting perspectives toward criticism to show how it is perceived differently. Lastly, the article identifies key provisions that are necessary for critical feedback to be constructed, presented, interpreted, and utilized in constructive and nonthreatening ways, which subsequently help trigger learner’s positive reactions and engagement with the received information. These provisions help create a community of practice where objective, informative, transparent, and engaging criticism can be given, respected, negotiated, and benefited from. The implications of these provisions for practice are discussed.
The study of the affective domain has grown in relevance ever since educators and researchers showed its influence in the process of teaching and learning, playing a fundamental role in the evolution of student learning. Anxiety is one component of the affective domain. The study of mathematical anxiety in pre-service primary teachers at university is the focus of this study. We analyse mathematical anxiety by examining specific data from the sample (age, gender, the subjects they studied in upper-secondary education, and academic performance). One hundred and nineteen students from the Primary Education degree completed the mathematical anxiety questionnaire, obtaining an average anxiety score considered negative (3.08 above the neutral value of 3). The results show a high anxiety toward examinations (3.68) and a negative relation with academic performance. Furthermore, the results show that women, 19-year-old university students, and those from a humanities-based upper-secondary education present greater levels of anxiety than men, older students, or students from other areas of upper-secondary education, respectively. All values of mathematical anxiety are higher than pre-pandemic levels. We can conclude from the studied sample that the students show low–medium global anxiety over mathematics, medium anxiety over problem solving, and high anxiety about exams.
Self-assessment (SA) can provide students with opportunities to self-evaluate, or make judgments about their learning process and products of learning. Regarding the importance of SA, this survey pursued to examine the effects of practicing SA on Saudi Arabian EFL learners’ resilience, creativity, and autonomy in task supported language learning. To fulfill these objectives, 60 intermediate EFL learners were chosen and separated accidentally into two groups of control and experimental. They were then pre-tested using three related questionnaires of resilience, creativity, and autonomy. Next, the treatment was practiced on the two groups. Eight lessons of Touchstone Book 3 were taught to the experimental group using SAvia applying different tasks. On the other hand, the lessons were trained to the control group without using SA and tasks. The aforementioned questionnaires were re-administered as the post-tests following the completion of all lessons. Independent and paired samples t-test findings displayed that the control and experimental groups performed differently on the three post-tests. In essence, the results showed that the experimental group's resilience, creativity, and autonomy were all improved by the treatment. The research's implications and conclusions were then outlined. The implications of the research can allow students to evaluate their own progress and skill development critically.
Online collaborative learning has been broadly applied in higher education. However, learners face many challenges in collaborating with one another and coregulating their learning, leading to low group performance. To address the gaps, this study proposed an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled feedback and feedforward approach that not only provide feedback but also offer recommendations for future actions to support online collaborative learning. In total, 153 college students participated in this study, and they were divided into three conditions. Fifty-one students conducted online collaborative learning with the AI-enabled feedback and feedforward approach, another 51 students carried out online collaborative learning with the AI-enabled feedback approach, and the remaining 51 students participated in traditional online collaborative learning without either type of support. The results indicated that the AI-enabled feedback and feedforward approach could significantly boost the level of collaborative knowledge building, coregulated behaviours, and group performance. Research and practical implications of the findings are discussed in depth.
Emotional instability and stress are the main disturbances that condition the learning process, affecting both teachers and students. The main objective of this review is to analyze the influence of stress and emotions (as part of stress) on the learning environment. Stress is a physiological mechanism that the organism develops to adapt and survive external and internal challenges. In this context, stress tends to be seen as a negative condition in the learning process when it is chronic. Extreme stress situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can generate anxiety and frustration in students. However, other studies indicate that controlled stress can positively enhance the learning process. On the other hand, the quality and intensity of emotions resulting from stress can influence as well the learning process. Positive emotions are healthy and can promote optimal learning. Emotions lead to sentimental, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological changes, which will have a strong influence on intellectual performance. The activation of coping strategies constitutes a key mechanism for dealing positively with problems and challenges, generating positive emotions essential for the self-regulation of learning. In conclusion, correct management of emotions in stressful situations could promote effective learning through enhanced attention and capacity to solve problems.
As assessment plays an important role in the process of teaching and learning, this research explored the impacts of formative and summative assessments on academic motivation, attitude toward learning, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill of EFL students in Iran. To fulfill the objectives of this research, 72 Iranian EFL learners were chosen based on the convenience sampling method assigned to two experimental groups (summative group and formative group) and a control group. Then, the groups took the pre-tests of test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill. Then, one experimental group was trained by following the rules of the formative assessment and the other experimental group was taught according to the summative assessment. The control group was instructed without using any preplanned assessment. After a 15-session treatment, the post-tests of the test anxiety, motivation, and self-regulation skill were administered to all groups to assess the impacts of the instruction on their language achievement. Lastly, a questionnaire of attitude was administered to both experimental groups to examine their attitudes towards the impacts of formative and summative assessment on their English learning improvement. The outcomes of one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni tests revealed that both summative and formative assessments were effective but the formative one was more effective on academic motivation, test anxiety, and self-regulation skill. The findings of one sample t -test indicated that the participants had positive attitudes towards summative and formative assessments. Based on the results, it can be concluded that formative assessment is an essential part of teaching that should be used in EFL instructional contexts. The implications of this study can help students to detect their own weaknesses and target areas that need more effort and work.
Systemic challenges for feedback practice are widely discussed in the research literature. The expanding mass higher education systems, for instance, seem to inhibit regular and sustained teacher-student interactions. The concept of feedback literacy, representing students’ and teachers’ capacities to optimize the benefits of feedback opportunities, has gained widespread attention by offering new ways of tackling these challenges. This study involves a critical review of the first 49 published articles on feedback literacy. Drawing on science and technology studies, and in particular on Popkewitz’s concept of fabrication, we explore how research has invented feedback literacy as a way of reframing feedback processes through the idea of individual skill development. First, we analyze how research has fabricated students and teachers through their feedback literacies that can be tracked, measured, and developed. Here, there exists a conceptual shift from analyzing feedback as external input to feedback literacy as a psychological construct residing within individuals. This interpretation carries positive implications of student and teacher empowerment, whilst downplaying policy-level challenges facing feedback interactions. The second contrasting fabrication positions feedback literate students and teachers as socio-culturally situated, communal agents. We conclude that feedback literacy is a powerful idea that, if used carefully, carries potential for reimagining feedback in higher education. It also, however, risks psychologizing students’ and teachers’ feedback behaviors amidst prevalent assessment and grading policies. We call for further reflexivity in considering whether feedback literacy research aims to challenge or complement the broader socio-political landscapes of higher education.
The notion of ‘feedforward’ has emerged as popular with practitioners, and there has been an upsurge in publications which include this term. This interpretivist and conceptual systematic review sought to consider the different forms of educational practices that are framed in relation to feedforward. The initial search of four electronic databases found 1076 articles published between 2007 and 2019, which were reduced to 68 once duplicates had been removed and exclusion/inclusion criteria applied during screening and eligibility procedures. An iterative meta-ethnographic approach to analysis resulted in the identification of five main practices, framed as feedforward. These were: alignment and timing (41%); use (25%); comments (18%); self-review (9%); and teaching (7%). The vast majority involved a process where student improvement was a key goal, but the design of this process differed between practices. A large proportion supported improvement from one task to the next, almost exclusively within the ‘future horizon’ of the module/study unit, while only a small proportion of articles focuses on improving the amount, nature or quality of the information delivered to learners. Evidence of student sense-making and uptake was rarely sought, and few practices offered genuine opportunities for student agency, self-regulation and the development of evaluative judgment.
Learners who enter higher education (HE) at the foundational level are susceptible to many challenges that impact their performance, engagement, and progression. Not all students who enter HE at the foundational level will progress and attain their course qualifications. In addition, many university lecturers struggle to give effective support to their students. This study focuses on feedforward teaching approaches that define ways to enhance learning by using advanced organisational strategies to offer relevant supporting concepts and meaningful verbal material. To date, there are insufficient literature reviews on feedforward approaches to facilitate students’ subsequent learning. Providing better academic support for students and a strong foundation for independent learning is the focus of this paper. Therefore, the main contributions of this paper are identifying the key feedforward features and suggesting effective feedforward approaches. This study was undertaken to rigorously implement feedforward approaches that would support groups of students in modules at the foundational entry-level. At the end of module delivery, different students’ data sets were analysed related to the progression rates, standard deviation, and mean. In addition, the student satisfaction questionnaire (module evaluation survey) and feedback survey were also considered for engagement and retention purposes. The outcomes from this exercise suggest that feedforward approaches allow students to increase their overall effort when attempting summative assessments and, thus, improve their performance, engagement, and retention.
The positive effect of feedback on students’ performance and learning is no longer disputed. For this reason, scholars have been working on developing models and theories that explain how feedback works and which variables may contribute to student engagement with it. Our aim with this review was to describe the most prominent models and theories, identified using a systematic, three-step approach. We selected 14 publications and described definitions, models, their background, and specific underlying mechanisms of feedback processes. We concluded the review with eight main points reached from our analysis of the models. The goal of this paper is to inform the field and to help both scholars and educators to select appropriate models to frame their research and intervention development. In our complementary review (Panadero and Lipnevich, 2021) we further analyzed and compared the fourteen models with the goal to classify and integrate shared elements into a new comprehensive model.
A number of models has been proposed to describe various types of feedback along with mechanisms through which feedback may improve student performance and learning. In this review we compare fourteen most prominent models with the goal to classify and integrate shared elements into a new comprehensive model. As a result of our synthesis, we offer a new typology of feedback, a classification of models into five thematic areas: descriptive, internal processing, interactional, pedagogical, and students characteristics. We conclude with an Integrative Model of Feedback Elements that includes five elements: Message, Implementation, Student, Context, and Agents (MISCA). We describe each element and relations among them, offering future directions for theory and practice.
El objetivo del presente artículo fue analizar la evaluación formativa a través de una revisión sistemática de estudios desarrollados en aula y producidos en los últimos cinco años; se tomó la base de datos de Scopus, Sciencedirect y Scielo. El estudio documental radicó en la selección de artículos científicos referentes a la aplicación de la evaluación en aula por docentes e investigadores, desde el nivel inicial de la educación básica hasta la superior universitaria. Se encontró que la evaluación formativa es una estrategia muy valiosa para desarrollar competencias; integra el proceso pedagógico a través de la comunicación permanente docente-estudiante; además incluye la retroalimentación que es esencial al momento de evaluar. Se concluye que la evaluación formativa fomenta del desarrollo integral del estudiante, causa confianza, genera la autonomía, promueve la autoevaluación y la coevaluación, es participativa y, sobre todo, produce la mejora de los niveles de aprendizaje en los estudiantes.
Increasing numbers of students around the world are suffering from mathematics anxiety. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between mathematics anxiety and gender, grade, career choices, and academic achievement in Grade 10, 11, and 12 students. This study used the Revised Version of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale to survey 1,548 high school students (570 males and 978 females) from high schools in Vietnam. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze data. The results show that there are significant differences in the influence of grade, academic achievement, and students’ career choices on mathematics anxiety. Academic coping strategies, gender, grade, and career choices are significant predictors of mathematics anxiety. Grade 12 students have higher levels of mathematics anxiety than others. Students with high average mathematics scores (9.0–10.0) have higher levels of mathematics anxiety than students with lower scores. Besides, students choosing finance and economics or industrial engineering to pursue into higher education also experienced higher levels of mathematics anxiety than others. This study contributes to the general discussion about the nature of mathematics anxiety and the relationship between mathematics anxiety and academic achievement.
Socrative es una herramienta digital de evaluación formativa que permite al docente crear itinerarios de aprendizaje a través de preguntas, introducir feedback que aparezca inmediatamente al responder y conocer el progreso de los estudiantes. En este artículo se expone una experiencia docente para la enseñanza de contenidos relacionados con las actividades físicas en el medio natural (AFMN) en el grado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte. Se fomentó el aprendizaje y la autorregulación a través de cuatro formas de feedback. Se recogieron datos sobre la percepción de la herramienta por parte de 30 estudiantes que la utilizaron en varias ocasiones a lo largo de la asignatura. Se empleó el cuestionario sobre la experiencia de buena práctica de la Red de Evaluación Formativa y Compartida en Educación (REFYCE), basado en el cuestionario validado sobre metodología y evaluación en formación inicial de profesorado (Castejón Oliva, Santos Pastor, & Palacios Picos, 2015), junto a dos preguntas abiertas. Los resultados mostraron una gran satisfacción con esta actividad de aprendizaje, correlacionada con su valoración sobre la ayuda que recibieron de sus compañeros. Se presentan implicaciones pedagógicas relacionadas con la creación de grupos de alumnos para la realización de la actividad y sus distintos niveles, la dificultad, orden y naturaleza de las preguntas, el tipo de feedback introducido y el diseño de la tarea para un correcto andamiaje que fomente la autorregulación del aprendizaje. Abstract. Socrative is a formative assessment digital tool that allows the teacher to create learning itineraries through questions, introduce feedback that appears immediately when answering, and check the students' progress. This article presents a teaching experience for the instruction of contents related to physical activities in the natural environment in the degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. Learning and self-regulation were encouraged through four forms of feedback. Data were collected on the perception of the tool by 30 students who used it on several occasions throughout the course. The questionnaire on good practice experience of the Spanish Network for Formative and Shared Evaluation in Education, based on the validated questionnaire on methodology and assessment in initial teacher training (Castejón Oliva et al., 2015), was used together with two open questions. The results showed high satisfaction with this learning activity, correlated with the appreciation of the assistance students received from their peers. Pedagogical implications are presented related to creating groups of students to carry out the activity and its different levels of performance, the difficulty, order and nature of the questions, the type of feedback introduced and the design of the task for a correct scaffolding that promotes self-regulated learning.
High quality feedback on assessments and deliverables is vital to student success. This pilot study sought to understand the impact of combining positive and performance-gap feedback in an immediate feedback scenario where students were provided multiple attempts to complete an assignment. 176 online undergraduate students were surveyed after completing a general inorganic chemistry course. Some students were provided performance-gap feedback, while others were provided performance-gap and positive feedback. The results suggest that type of feedback provided does not change students’ perceptions and self-reported behaviors in the course. However, students who were provided both performance-gap and positive feedback received an average of an entire letter grade higher than the students who received only performance-gap feedback. These findings support the idea that a combination of feedback has a direct positive impact on students in an online setting.
Previous literature on teachers’ feedback practices has revealed that feedback has a strong effect on students’ academic performance. Nevertheless, feedback is a challenge for teachers to use in teaching and the learning environment due to time constraints and teachers’ inability to provide students with feedback they need for self-improvement. Furthermore, teachers are often unsure whether the feedback given will meet students’ academic needs as students have to work on improving themselves after receiving feedback from their respective teachers. Hence, it is necessary to determine how teachers’ feedback correlates with students’ performance in school. Feedback highlights students’ strengths guides them on how to develop and regulate their learning strategies. Feedback also provides better learning opportunities, while simultaneously guiding them to improve their current weaknesses. This paper presents a comprehensive review of past studies about feedback and its impacts on students’ learning in the classroom. This paper is using systematic literature review (SLR) to explore the connection between students’ academic performance and teachers’ feedback. The analysis discovered that although teachers’ feedback played a significant role in helping students improve themselves academically and in motivating them to become independent, feedback, particularly in written form, could negatively influence or impede learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused both unprecendented disruptions and massive changes to education. However, as schools return, these changes may disappear. Moreover, not all of the changes are necessarily the changes we want in education. In this paper, we argue that the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for educational changes that have been proposed before COVID-19 but were never fully realized. We identify three big changes that education should make post COVID: curriculum that is developmental, personalized, and evolving; pedagogy that is student-centered, inquiry-based, authentic, and purposeful; and delivery of instruction that capitalizes on the strengths of both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Building upon Zimmerman’s socio-cognitive view of self-regulation, we explored EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ revision and the likely contribution to revision from three salient self-regulating sources: peer feedback, instructor feedback, and revision goals. Data was obtained from 70 Chinese EFL students in a writing class through a 300-word online writing assignment involving online instructor and peer feedback, free-response revision goals, and a required revision. We closely coded students’ revision and then used the same coding scheme to analyze the relative levels of association of revision changes with peer comments, instructor comments and revision goals. We found that: (a) the majority of revision changes have been triggered by three mediating sources, with revision goals as the most significant contributing source. Additionally, most revision changes come from a combination of two or three sources, with the overlap of peer feedback and revision goals accounting for the biggest overlapping contribution for both high and low-level revisions; (b) as for the relationship among the three sources, no significant difference was found between revision goals’ overlap rate with peer feedback and their overlap rate with instructor feedback. Instructor feedback and peer feedback did not overlap very much. Findings suggest that students could revise beyond instructor and peer feedback in their revision efforts guided by their own reflective goals, and peer feedback could function as a more productive and multiple-reader source of revision in comparison with instructor feedback. This study also provided evidence for students’ self-regulated learning of writing through the use of self-regulating resources and charted a route for how writing could be improved.
It is well established that the use of reflections influences and supports learning in important ways. However, student-learning, teacher-pedagogical, institutional, and sociocultural factors can hinder initiatives to promote student reflection in universities. This literature review aims to provide an overview of the challenges of encouraging reflection in higher education through a multilevel perspective. Based on the analysis of 66 selected empirical and non-empirical articles, the results show that there is a reciprocal relationship between barriers that occur at the macro and micro levels. In addition, it is found that reflection literacy is necessary at all four levels to overcome the barriers identified. The multilevel framework is proposed as a model for coordinating institutional efforts to address the challenges of reflection and upon which a shared discourse can be developed by key stakeholders who are interested in promoting reflective practice in higher education.
The study investigates one mathematics teacher’s implementation of formative assessment and its effects on students’ self-regulated learning (SRL). A questionnaire administered before and after the eight-month long intervention shows a significant effect, compared to two control classes, on students’ motivational beliefs involved in SRL. Qualitative data shows a notable enhancement of the students’ SRL behavior in the classroom. Analysis of the teacher’s implemented formative assessment shows a practice integrating several aspects of formative assessment, and provides empirical evidence of what formative assessment with large effects on students’ SRL may look like and how it fits with models of SRL development.
Introduction: Both formative and summative assessments have their place in medical curricula: formative assessment to accompany the learning process and summative assessment to ensure that minimum standards are achieved. Depending on the conditions of undergraduate training, assessment and feedback, students place more or less importance on formative assessment, and thus the fulfilment of its function may be questionable. This study describes how the low-stakes formative Berlin Progress Test (BPT) is embedded at two medical faculties with partially different framework conditions and what effects these have on the students' testing efforts and the evaluation of the test, especially the perception of its benefits and (intangible) costs, such as non-participation in contemporaneous activities and emotional impairments.
Methods: In this study, the proportion of non-serious BPT participants at two medical faculties (total sample: NF1=1,410, NF2=1,176) in winter term 2015/16 was determined both by the number of unanswered questions on the test itself and in a survey using a standardized instrument (NF1=415, NF2=234). Furthermore, open questions were asked in this survey about perceived benefits and perceived costs, which were analyzed with qualitative and quantitative methods.
Results: The BPT is generally better accepted at Faculty 2. This can be seen in the higher proportion of serious test takers, the lower perceived costs and the higher reported benefit, as well as the higher proportion of constructive comments. Faculty 2 students better understood the principle of formative testing and used the results of the BPT as feedback on their own knowledge progress, motivation to learn and reduction of exam fear.
Discussion: When medical faculties integrate formative assessments into the curriculum, they have to provide a framework in which these assessments are perceived as an important part of the curriculum. Otherwise, it is questionable whether they can fulfil their function of accompanying the learning process.
Formative assessment has the potential to support teaching and learning in the classroom. This study reviewed the literature on formative assessment to identify prerequisites for effective use of formative assessment by teachers. The review sought to address the following research question: What teacher prerequisites need to be in place for using formative assessment in their classroom practice? The review was conducted using a systematic approach. A total of 54 studies were included in this review. The results show that (1) knowledge and skills (e.g., data literacy), (2), psychological factors (e.g., social pressure), and (3) social factors (e.g., collaboration) influence the use of formative assessment. The prerequisites identified can inform professional development initiatives regarding formative assessment, as well as teacher education programs.
Reflective journals are used to develop students' writing skills, assess reflection level, gather research data, promote teachers' professional development, promote instructional practices, and affect students' learning. However, little research explored the impact of reflective journals on undergraduate students' learning and its challenges in an English writing course. The current study fills the gap in the literature by exploring Qatari female undergraduate students' perspectives of reflective journals in an English writing course and identifying their challenges with using reflective journals. Social constructivism and Gibb's reflective cycle informed the theoretical framework of the study. Using a case study methodology, the researcher designed a reflective journal based on Gibbs' reflective cycle. Accordingly, reflective journals, written by 55 Qatari female undergraduate students, were collected and qualitatively analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings revealed that students experienced the following learning moments in their English writing course: engaging, invaluable, surprising , challenging, novel, perplexing, worrying, enlightening, and transferrable. Moreover, participants reported a number of benefits and challenges of using reflective journals that are peculiar to the Qatari context. Implications for using reflective journals in higher education are provided.
A meta-analysis (435 studies, k = 994, N > 61,000) of empirical research on the effects of feedback on student learning was conducted with the purpose of replicating and expanding the Visible Learning research (Hattie and Timperley, 2007; Hattie, 2009; Hattie and Zierer, 2019) from meta-synthesis. Overall results based on a random-effects model indicate a medium effect (d = 0.48) of feedback on student learning, but the significant heterogeneity in the data shows that feedback cannot be understood as a single consistent form of treatment. A moderator analysis revealed that the impact is substantially influenced by the information content conveyed. Furthermore, feedback has higher impact on cognitive and motor skills outcomes than on motivational and behavioral outcomes. We discuss these findings in the light of the assumptions made in The power of feedback (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). In general, the results suggest that feedback has rightly become a focus of teaching research and practice. However, they also point toward the necessity of interpreting different forms of feedback as independent measures.
Introduction:
Self-directed learning is a vital principle promoted in health profession's education, particularly with the increasing use of online learning methods. Likewise, reflection has been recognized as an indispensable and formidable concept for learning which plays a positive role in fostering students' self-reflection, critical thinking, and development of professional values and skill. Hence, the present study was undertaken to identify the effect of reflective thinking on academic performance among undergraduate dental students.
Materials and methods:
Reflective thinking was assessed among 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-year undergraduate dental students and interns of a dental college and hospital in Hyderabad. Reflection questionnaire assessed habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection on a 5-point Likert scale. The percentage of marks obtained in the last university examinations was considered for academic performance. The completed questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS version 20). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results:
A total sample of 263 individuals comprising 188 (71.5%) females and 75 (28.5%) males participated in the study. Our findings showed that the four scales of reflective thinking, such as habitual action (P = 0.0001*), understanding (P = 0.02*), reflection (P = 0.02*), and critical reflection (P = 0.01*), showed statistically significant difference based on the year of study. However, no difference based on gender was noted. Reflection (17.2 ± 2.41) and critical reflection (16.3 ± 2.77) mean scores were highest among 4th years. Higher understanding (17.83 ± 1.78) and reflection (17.33 ± 2.01) mean scores were observed among students who attained more than 75% in their academic performance.
Conclusion:
Thus, the present study emphasizes the role of reflective thinking and its significance in academic learning process.
Teacher feedback in mathematics is a potential strategy for redressing declining international trends in high school mathematics achievement. Effective feedback comprises corrective information (feedback) and guidance for improvement (feedforward)—referred to herein as ‘feedback–feedforward’. Relatively little research has examined the motivational mechanisms linking teacher feedback to achievement, with even less linking feedback–feedforward to achievement. Goal setting theory proposes that goal setting, especially growth-oriented (e.g. personal best) goal setting, may mediate the positive impact of feedback on achievement. Using structural equation modelling, this study (N = 362 Australian students) builds on this to examine if (a) teacher feedback–feedforward and PB goal setting predicted achievement in mathematics and (b) PB goal setting mediated the link between teacher feedback–feedforward and achievement. Mathematics teacher feedback–feedforward predicted PB goal setting, PB goal setting predicted achievement, and PB goal setting fully mediated the link between feedback–feedforward and achievement. Implications for mathematics teacher feedback–feedforward and goal-setting interventions are discussed.
Quality teaching is directly related with effective and high-quality feedback, and such arguments are well supported by the findings of recent studies. Feedback constitutes a central aspect of learning, yet has been largely neglected in research to date, particularly from the student’s point of view. This gap in practice has been picked up by the Department for Teacher Training of “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu. This paper explores students’ perception of feedback. First year students enrolled at the Primary and Preschool Pedagogy program were invited to attend focus groups and individual interviews. A questionnaire was developed from themes identified in the focus groups and was administrated to a large group of undergraduate students in the second part of the study. This paper reports on the focus groups and the themes that emerged from the data. Findings revealed that receiving late and minimal feedback during the semester was a common cause of students’ dissatisfaction. Responses were mixed to the question of whether enough feedback was being provided. They indicated they wanted a more proactive approach from the academic staff, because they recognized the value of feedback as central to improved learning.
This study focused on the relationship of students' perceptions of teachers' feedback practice with students' perceived external goal orientation, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching. Data were collected from a student survey (n = 1137) administered to students in Norwegian lower secondary schools. Multiple regression and path analyses were performed. The results indicated that the students who were aware of learning goals perceived the teachers' feedback as more useful. Path analyses suggested that students' perceived self-efficacy and EFL teaching positively predicted their perceptions of teacher feedback practice when mediated by perceived external goal orientation and self-regulation.
Highlights
•The students perceived feedback practice as more useful when predicted and mediated by several variables.
•Perceived self-efficacy and EFL teaching predicted feedback when mediated by external goal orientation and self-regulation.
•Perceived external goal orientation was the strongest predictor of students' perceptions of teachers' feedback practice.
•The students reported strongly positive perceptions of self-efficacy in English as a foreign language.
•The students were divided in the perceived usefulness of the EFL teaching.
How do we support students through their difficult transition to secondary school? Perceived value for and perceived ability to be successful during secondary school are a crucial part of any answer to this question. These perceptions and their interaction with classroom instruction are at the heart of many issues students face in this challenging new learning environment. Seeking to address these issues head-on, the current study modelled the shared role of motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic) and self-efficacy beliefs within mathematics, native and foreign language achievement across first-year secondary school studies at six schools in Japan. Modelling included pre-post subject achievement and students' instructional experiences. Longitudinal latent structural equation modelling was undertaken for each of the subjects to examine the interplay between students' motivational and instructional experiences across one academic year. Findings support the shared role of intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy within achievement (βs = .1-..24), and reciprocal relationships between perceptions of instruction and students’ motivations/beliefs (βs = .15-.21). Results also suggest different patterns of motivation-belief and motivation/belief-instruction interconnections across the three subjects researched. The pervasive role of instructional experiences for students' motivation-beliefs (from teaching to self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, βs = .14-.20) highlight the powerful role of teachers in these critical environments. Implications for theory and practice arising from the results and the integrative model utilised are discussed.
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Highlights:
1. A study across first-year secondary school: math, native and foreign language classes.
2. Did not support reciprocal connections: intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy.
4. Externally-controlling experiences presented adaptive and maladaptive relationships with students’ motivations/beliefs.
5. Reciprocal relationships for students' motivation/beliefs and instructional experiences.
6. A Mathew-effect between adaptive motivation-beliefs and quality of instruction experienced.
Recently, the concept of evaluative judgement has gained attention as a pedagogical approach to classroom formative assessment practices. Evaluative judgement is the capacity to be able to judge the work of oneself and that of others, which implies developing knowledge about one’s own assessment capability. A focus on evaluative judgement helps us to better understand what is the influence of assessment practices in the regulation of learning. In this paper, we link evaluative judgement to two self-regulated learning models (Zimmerman and Winne) and present a model on the effects on co-regulation of learning. The models help us to understand how students can be self-regulated through developing their evaluative judgement. The co-regulation model visualises how the learner can become more strategic in this process through teacher and peer assessment in which assessment knowledge and regulation strategies are shared with the learner. The connections we make here are crucial to strengthening our understanding of the influence of assessment practices on students’ learning.
We report the validity of a test instrument that assesses the arithmetic ability of primary students by (a) describing the theoretical model of arithmetic ability assessment using Wilson’s (2004) four building blocks of constructing measures and (b) providing empirical evidence for the validation study. The instrument consists of 21 multiple-choice questions that hierarchically evaluate arithmetic intended learning outcomes (ILOs) on arithmetic ability, hierarchically, based on Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy for 138 primary three grade students. The theoretical model describes students’ arithmetic ability on three distinct levels: solid, developing, and basic. At each level, the model describes the characteristics of the tasks that the students can answer correctly. The analysis shows that the difficulty of the items followed the expected order in the theoretical construct map, where the difficulty of each designed item aligned with the cognitive level of the student, the item difficulty distribution aligned with the structure of the person construct map, and word problems required higher cognitive abilities than the calculation problems did. The findings, however, pointed out that more difficult items can be added to better differentiate students with different ability levels, and an item should be revised to enhance the reliability and validity of the research. We conclude that the conceptualizations of such formative assessments provide meaningful information for teachers to support learning and tailoring instruction.
In this study, we sought to understand assessment-related attitudes and authentic experiences of evaluation anxiety with a sample of first-year university students. We focused on identifying: (a) why students had reported high levels of anxiety on a recent, grade-bearing assessment, and (b) how their attitudes toward assessment type and weighting influenced their views on anxiety and learning. Drawing on social constructivist principles, 31 first-year students in New Zealand participated in a 25-minute interview. Semi-structured interviews included open-ended items about students’ experiences with anxiety, followed by a Q-sort task that structured dialogue around assessment attitudes. Results show that evaluation anxiety was reportedly caused by several factors, including students’ doubts about their capabilities, concerns about insufficient time and time management, external pressures to be successful, unclear institutional standards for quality, and concerns about performing well on certain types of assessment. Students reported that oral presentations and high-stakes written tasks were more anxiety-inducing for them. Meanwhile, students reported that high-stakes written tasks, low-stakes tests, and low-stakes written tasks helped them learn more effectively than other assessment types and weightings. We discuss the implications of assessment design, including the challenges of evaluating students in a way that facilitates learning and limits unnecessary evaluation anxiety.
The flipped classroom model has been shown in recent years to have a positive effect on students' motivation and academic performance. In this paper, we analyze the perception that students of six undergraduate subjects at University of Jaén (Spain) have of the subjects’ formative assessment and their attitude towards this new teaching-learning model. In addition, we analyze whether both variables influence their perception of achieving better academic results. The results of our study show that both aspects (formative assessment perception and attitude) explain students' perception of outcomes. It leads us to conclude that students' attitude is a key element of fostering more and better learning that improves their performance. In this way, our results provide further evidence for the literature on the positive effects of the flipped classroom on the teaching-learning process at the university level for students, teachers and scholars.
The call for individuals to engage in reflection is increasingly prevalent across much of the world. To aid this, a wealth of practical paper-based manuals, online tutorials and face-to-face training is available to foster participant engagement. However, a noticeable gap in this support is evident when learners and professionals in the workforce are asked to ‘self-reflect’. This thoughtpiece seeks to positively address this by offering a literature-based exploration of this critical skill; this is facilitated by asking and answering key questions such as what is self-reflection, why is it important, and how can it be practically undertaken. Efforts to encourage individuals to engage in creative self-reflective activity are fuelled by an explanation of the Self-Reflective Shapes approach that has been developed by the author. Written to be accessible in both content and scope, the discussion offered serves as an introductory ‘go-to’ that has the potential to help individuals self-reflect as part of their learning and/or professional development with improved clarity, appreciation and confidence.
Assessment for Learning (AfL) is a student-centered and highly interactive approach to learning and assessment and is believed to be able to enhance learning outcomes and learner autonomy. Given its potential effectiveness, the Chinese government has introduced assessment reform initiatives, requiring teachers to incorporate AfL strategies into university EFL classes. Nonetheless, little is known about how Chinese EFL teachers view AfL and whether they have attempted to enact the associated AfL strategies. Utilising a quantitative survey, the extent to which university EFL teachers valued and utilised AfL strategies in their classrooms was explored. To this end, the Assessment for Learning Strategy Questionnaires for Teachers (AfLSQ-T) was distributed to 495 Chinese university EFL teachers. After data-cleaning, a sample comprised of 402 questionnaires was obtained. Results indicated that respondent teachers ascribed little value to self-led AfL strategies, and they also scarcely implemented them. Our findings highlight the need to pay attention to developing assessment-literate EFL teachers in order to enhance their assessment effectiveness, particularly with regard to implementing AfL.
Purpose of the article
Students who fail assessments are at risk of negative consequences, including emotional distress and cessation of studies. Identifying students at risk of failure before they experience difficulties may considerably improve their outcomes.
Methods
Using a prospective design, we collected simple measures of engagement (formative assessment scores, compliance with routine administrative tasks, and attendance) over the first 6 weeks of Year 1. These measures were combined to form an engagement score which was used to predict a summative examination sat 14 weeks after the start of medical school. The project was repeated for five cohorts, giving a total sample size of 1042.
Results
Simple linear regression showed engagement predicted performance (R²adj = 0.03, F(1,1040) = 90.09, p < 0.001) with a small effect size. More than half of failing students had an engagement score in the lowest two deciles.
Conclusions
At-risk medical students can be identified with some accuracy immediately after starting medical school using routinely collected, easily analysed data, allowing for tailored interventions to support students. The toolkit provided here can reproduce the predictive model in any equivalent educational context. Medical educationalists must evaluate how the advantages of early detection are balanced against the potential invasiveness of using student data.
Despite a growing interest in instructional feedback, students’ feedback perceptions received limited attention. We examined the structural validity and measurement invariance of the Feedback Perceptions Questionnaire (FPQ). The FPQ measures feedback perceptions in terms of perceived fairness, usefulness, acceptance, willingness to improve, and affect. Secondary school students (N = 1486) received a fictional scenario containing Concise General Feedback or Elaborated Specific Feedback by a fictional peer. Students rated their perceptions as if they had received the feedback themselves. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supports the structural validity of the FPQ and its invariance for the two types of peer feedback, gender, four grade-levels and two tracks. Perceived fairness of peer feedback was a strong positive predictor of willingness to improve and affect, whereas perceived usefulness and acceptance of peer feedback showed a more complex pattern in predicting willingness to improve and affect.
Some factors related to students maths anxiety are perceived to be important for academic failure. Such of these factors and some other factors contribute immensely to the problem of mathematics achievement that is spreading among students of Economics and Administrative Sciences. Considering such a problem as a maths anxiety, we propose a mathematical model to study how this problem is spread in the Faculty. We have discussed about basic properties of the system. Basic reproduction numbers are calculated. Our numerical findings are illustrated through computer simultaneous using MATLAB, which show the reliability of our model from the practical point of view. Students’ math-anxiety implications of our analytical findings are addressed critically. The model analysis reveals that all of the students start to show better maths achievement on the positive way during the semester (approximately 3,5 months). The sensitivity analysis of the parameters of the model shows that reducing maths anxiety by focusing positive change of behaviour in relation to the teaching of maths and the teachers’ way of teaching is an effective on students’ achievement of maths.
Much is made of students generally rating assessment lower than other aspects of their educational experience. It is frequently cited in research literature as evidence for a general crisis in assessment, and it strongly influences institutional enhancement efforts and media coverage of student feedback. Focusing on the UK’s National Student Survey, this paper draws on a range of published empirical research to argue against the idea that relatively low scores for assessment-related survey questions indicate a general problem with assessment. Students tend to rate the quality of assessment lower when they are unhappy with the assessment outcome, and students tend to be unhappy with assessment outcomes. We therefore shouldn’t be surprised at the relatively low scores for assessment-related questions. This does not mean that there isn’t a general problem with assessment in higher education, just that low scores for assessment questions in student surveys aren’t good evidence for it. Researchers should cite better evidence of problems with assessment quality; institutions should think more carefully before focusing enhancement efforts on assessment; and we should all generally be much more cautious about interpreting the results of quantitative student surveys.
Available on https://idus.us.es/handle/11441/137643.
Pre-university policy can determine the success (or failure) of university studies. Using different econometric techniques, this work carries out an exploratory study to assess the relationship between the mathematics skills developed at upper secondary school and performance and retention in university studies in the Economic-Business area. Our findings point out the recommended secondary education track to access the Economics, Business and Marketing Degrees is not the most suitable to achieve success in these studies. A set of specific proposals of Educational Policy is shown.
This paper explores the use of audio feedback with 182 final year undergraduate students in a post-92 university studying on a Business Management undergraduate degree. It looks at the problems associated with traditional forms of feedback and feedforward and explores the reasons why students fail to engage with the comments made by lecturers regarding their performance in assessment. Feedback and feedforward are widely recognised to be vitally important for students looking to improve their grades, but the authors found that only 60% accessed their feedback when it was given in the standard, written, form with reasons ranging from students having an instrumental approach to assessment, through to a perception that the comments made were generic and lacking in meaning. This research has demonstrated that an alternative approach to feedback and feedforward, using audio rather than written communication, can increase both the number of students accessing feedback, but also students’ engagement with what has been said. By using an audio-based method to hear both the comments and the final grade, students felt more thought had been put into the marking process and that comments were personalised to them, making them more likely to engage with it.
The theoretical underpinnings of and learning processes activated by student-generated feedback corresponding to potential answers given to student-generated questions (SGQ) were explicated, and its learning effects were examined. Four classes of seventh-graders (n = 109) participated in a non-equivalent pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research study that lasted nine weeks. The results from the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and content analysis of student-generated feedback supported the finding that significantly more benefits were gained from students engaging in feedback-generation for SGQ. These benefits were noted in terms of increases in the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, the promotion of better question-generation quality, and the fostering of perspective-taking abilities. Suggestions and implications for instruction and future studies as well as caveats for implementing teachers are provided.
Despite emotion being recognized as fundamental to learning, the affective aspects of learning have often been side-lined in higher education. In the context of rising student wellbeing challenges, exploring ways of supporting students and their emotions in learning is increasingly significant. Pedagogic partnerships have the potential to help students to recognize and work with their emotions in their learning in a positive manner. As such, pedagogic partnerships offer opportunities to promote resilience and enhance student wellbeing. In this paper, we develop partnership research in three ways by: 1) considering the ways in which pedagogic partnership may support students to encounter emotions and empower them to develop resilience, leading to positive wellbeing; 2) exploring how this process might be achieved in the disciplinary context of geography; and 3) developing an evidence-based model to summarize the potential effect of pedagogic partnership in enhancing student wellbeing. We draw upon two case studies of student-faculty and student-student pedagogic partnership within geography curricula in order to evidence that emotional awareness in learning comes through the joys and struggles of working in partnership. We argue that pedagogic partnership may be developed to support the wellbeing of modern-day higher education communities.
Considering the usefulness of monitoring students’ response to available task-level feedback in confidence-based assessment, in this paper, we introduce a novel approach to classify students problem-solving activities into various engagement and disengagement behaviors and study their occurrences during complete learning sessions. Then by clustering these sessions, we obtained four distinct groups which varied both in terms of students’ (dis)engagement behaviors and their quantitative performance scores in confidence-based assessment. Moreover, a qualitative analysis shows that high and low performance students (determined based on their final scores in the course) relate differently to the obtained clusters. Based on these findings we highlight that our approach of investigating students’ engagement by observing traces of performed problem-solving activities is promising and opens new avenues of research. Also, our approach is more generic as it does not contain human-expert defined time limits which are usually determined by analyzing students’ data who participated in the experimental study.
The term ‘feedforward’ is increasingly employed in higher education, and this paper focuses on the way in which it fits into contemporary debates about feedback and its impact on practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the practices academics associate with feedforward and the ways in which their intentions and understandings varied. The term resulted in practices being framed as a process and prompted academics to consider the points in the future when students were expected to deploy information and improve. Three future horizons were identified: the ‘within-module’ future horizon dominated, while the challenges of ‘beyond-module’ and ‘beyond-programme’ horizons became apparent. Written comments, guidance, formative assessment and design practices were associated with feedforward, comprising both transmission and student-focused approaches. It is concluded that the modular system restricts longer-term future horizons and sustainable practices, and more must be done to address the divide between theoretical and practitioners’ perspectives.
This study investigates the impact of secondary school students’ perceptions of mathematics teachers’ formative assessment practices and feedback delivery on their feedback use, and mathematics performance. The sample consisted of 2767 Form 3 (Grade 11) students from 48 secondary schools in Tanzania. Surveys and focus group discussions were used to measure students’ perceptions of formative assessment, feedback delivery, and feedback use. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) of survey data showed that students’ perceptions of the quality of teacher feedback delivery and perceived scaffolding positively predicted students’ feedback use whereas perceived monitoring negatively predicted feedback use. In turn, students’ feedback use positively predicted their mathematics performance to a small extent. Content analysis of focus group discussions illustrated that most students valued their mathematics teacher’s assessment practices. The findings imply that in Sub-Saharan African educational systems the quality of teacher feedback delivery and promotion of student feedback use can improve students’ mathematics performance.
This paper addresses how formative assessment can support secondary students’ self-regulated learning in English language learning. Self-regulated learning is essential for lifelong learning because it allows students to construct knowledge by identifying their learning goals, self-managing their learning process and self-evaluating their performance against goals. Although a consensus can be found in the literature that formative assessment has significant potential for supporting self-regulated learning among students, how such potential can be afforded through teachers’ practices of formative assessment in English language classrooms remains under-explored. In this paper, findings from classroom observations and interviews with two teachers and 16 students in a foreign language secondary school are reported. The findings reveal that under the guidance of their teachers, the participants engaged in formative assessment in a proactive manner and appeared to be emerging as self-regulated learners. The students perceived the classroom formative assessment activities that they experienced and the feedback they received to be helpful in the development of their deep understanding and capability for self-regulation in English language learning.
Although research has explored how in-class pedagogical practices and narrative feedback affect student engagement and motivation, questions remain on the impact of grading systems (i.e. multi-interval grades vs pass/fail and narrative evaluation) on academic motivation. Here, we compared the motivation of students who received multi-interval grades to students who were evaluated with a pass/fail and end of course narrative evaluation. In addition, we compared academic motivation at institutions with different grading systems. Grades did not enhance academic motivation. Instead, grades enhanced anxiety and avoidance of challenging courses. In contrast, narrative evaluations supported basic psychological needs and enhanced motivation by providing actionable feedback, promoting trust between instructors and students and cooperation amongst students. Even when accounting for potential confounding factors, students in universities that used narrative evaluations experienced higher intrinsic and autonomous motivation compared to students who received multi-interval grades. Given the potential for grades to thwart basic psychological needs and academic motivation, institutions should re-evaluate when and in which programs grades may be appropriate or necessary.