Book Chapters

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book draws attention to the intricacy of students' affect, cognition, and behavior in feedback processes. It sheds light on the interplay between emotions and feedback, provides valuable insights that contribute to a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of effective feedback practices. The book demonstrates that students with achievement orientation were able to leverage unsatisfactory results to identify the aspects to be improved for examination preparation. It discusses how students experience assessment feedback. The book also suggests that by recognizing the diversity in students' receptivity to instructional feedback, teachers can tailor their feedback approaches to better meet the individual needs and preferences of their students. It reports a nested hierarchy of teachers' conceptions of feedback: directive (focus on error corrections); interactive (focus on interaction to aid students' understanding); and reflective (focus on students' introspection for academic regulation).

Students' deep engagement with feedback is crucial for performance advancement. However, the conventional teacher-centered feedback approach restricts learner agency and their participation in feedback processes. Drawing on the data from a school-university collaboration project with two Singapore secondary schools, this chapter explores how student-centered feedback pedagogy could be developed to increase students' affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with feedback. Specific classroom cases are unpacked to discuss the major characteristics of student-centered feedback pedagogy and the respective roles and responsibilities of teachers and students in feedback interaction. We argue that effective student-centered feedback pedagogy is underpinned by a partner relationship between students and teachers. Implications for nurturing feedback partnerships at school are outlined.

Just as it is important to understand how students engage with assessment feedback, it is also vital that we understand how teachers experience assessment feedback, and what might constitute that experience. In this chapter, we present the findings of a phenomenographic study of teachers' ways of experiencing assessment feedback. Three qualitatively different ways were identified – ranging from teachers experiencing assessment feedback as directive (emphasising mistakes), interactive (emphasising feedback communication) and reflective (emphasising students' introspection for self-directed learning). The varying teacher assessment feedback experiences when mapped against a learning-oriented practice of AfL depict what is needed in moving towards more depth in a more student-centric practice to support learning. Recommendations are offered for identifying the factors that influence the uptake of a more sophisticated assessment feedback experience, and the pedagogical strategies that may assist teachers in reviewing their conceptions of assessment feedback beliefs and practices.

Students have unique perspectives on their feedback experience and their insights warrant not only teachers' attention but also responses such that opportunities are afforded to students to enable them to actively shape their own education. It is important to understand how students experience assessment feedback, and what might constitute that experience of assessment feedback from a student's lens. This chapter presents the findings of a phenomenographic study of students' ways of experiencing assessment feedback. Analyses of the group discussions with students from five secondary schools in the study suggest a nested hierarchy with qualitatively different ways of experiencing assessment feedback. Recommendations are offered for incorporating insights from students' voice that may support teachers in designing and enacting student-centred feedback pedagogy in schools.

This chapter proposes a typology of teacher feedback practices organized around three phases. During the first phase, teachers prepare learners emotionally and cognitively to receive feedback. Typically, teachers share or co-construct success criteria for the task that the class is about to embark on. The second phase involves teachers giving intentional and actionable feedback to help students achieve learning goals. In the final phase, teachers involve the class in activities to help students process and act on feedback. These could involve class or group discussions or individual consultations. Together, the suite of feedback practices forms a feedback pedagogy that aims to bring about affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. The examples shown in the chapter are gathered across different subjects and levels. The chapter aims to provoke reflection on what the individual teacher, the whole department, and even the school could do to make this feedback pedagogy a sustainable practice.