The Reliability of Formative Feedback: A Taxonomy and Investigation of the Consistency of Formative Feedback

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 44
  In Roundtable Session: Conceptual and Empircal Advances in Classroom Assessment

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two pieces of research: first, the development of a taxonomy of feedback messages that instructors send to students on their written work, and second, an analysis of the consistency across instructors on the types of feedback that they provide. Building on the literature of feedback typololgies, a sixteen major-category taxonomy was developed with sub-categories within each major category. Next, the taxonomy was used to examine the consistency of feedback across different instructors in the same course. The findings showed that instructors are highly variable in the formative feedback messages that they send students, and that the formative feedback messages received by students depend greatly on who is sending them.

Authors

• Jacqui Murray, University of Otago

• Ruth Gasson, University of Otago

• Jeffrey K. Smith, University of Otago