Feedback on Feedback
Happy 2025 and welcome back to these SoTL articles. To begin the new calendar year, I would like to share an article on student learning feedback. The recent article is entitled “Feedback on feedback: An exploratory case study on online facilitators’ perceptions regarding their feedback practices in higher education” by Mather and Scheepers (January 2025).
The authors remind us that feedback is often provided in a monologic way whereby the lecturer provides feedback and comments on students’ assignments. Ajjawi and Boud (2018) conclude that this form of feedback is limited as students often do not understand the feedback or know how to implement it. Furthermore, students may have moved on to new learning units and content by the time they receive the feedback. This suggests the need for sustainable and dialogic feedback, as advocated by Williams (2024), where students play an active role in seeking, accessing, and using feedback to close the feedback loop.
The key research questions addressed included:
What is the instructor's understanding of meaningful feedback?
How do instructors perceive meaningful feedback?
What gaps exist in instructors' understanding of meaningful feedback?
The study explored the perceptions of instructors regarding meaningful feedback in an online learning environment. Using a qualitative exploratory case study design, 45 instructors shared their understanding of what constitutes meaningful feedback. Data were collected through focus groups and analyzed using content analysis. It was found that whilst each of them believed their feedback to be meaningful there were aspects of their practice that did not align with research. Their understanding emphasizes students’ processes and strategies rather than personal attributes. They perceived meaningful feedback as detailed, specific, and focused on task requirements and strategies, ensuring that students understand their successes and areas for improvement. Implementation of feedforward practices and the use of different methods and platforms to provide feedback were found to be areas for development.
The authors used Henderson, et. al (2019) definition of feedback as “a process where the learner makes sense of the performance-relevant information to promote their learning.” Their rationale is that feedback is a forward-looking process rather than a means to justify a grade.
The study used the Hattie and Timperley (2007) model, which is the “assumption that the purpose of feedback is to drive student achievement, thus supporting the learner in reaching their learning goal.” The model states that meaningful feedback includes three critical questions:
What are the goals (outcomes)?
Am I on track (monitoring formative feedback)?
Where am I going next (initiate self-regulated learning)?
The model recognises four distinct feedback levels. Feedback on:
task;
process;
self-regulation; and
the person.
From analysis of the data, the following themes emerged:
Praise the process not the person;
Task and process take precedence;
Feedforward is understood but not practised; and
Aligning with traditional views of providing feedback.
References
Mather, N., & Scheepers, L. (2025). Feedback on feedback: An exploratory case study on online facilitators’ perceptions regarding their feedback practices in higher education.Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 26(1), 220-232.
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