Towards greater independence in feedback dialogue: Review and expansion of a conversation tool

 Nederlandse versie

Martje Köhlen (Inholland University of Applied Sciences)

A year ago now, we published our [Dutch] blog ‘How do you stimulate feedback dialogue? First experiences with a conversation tool’. In it, we shared a tool for students to collectively process feedback on a draft version of their group assignment, in preparation for a feedback dialogue with their teacher. Meanwhile, we can say that this material has been well received. Indeed, as a result of this blog, several teachers have started working with the tool, we have provided a number of workshops for teacher teams and at conferences, and we have been asked several times to think along about other applications of (parts of) the conversation tool. All this activity has led to some areas for improvement, as well as some concrete wishes for expansion of the conversation tool. In this blog, we therefore present a revised version, which is also applicable to different teaching situations and allows for building student autonomy with its implementation.

Revised and digital version
The original conversation tool assumes a situation where first-year students are working in groups on an assignment and have to process feedback together. In the revised version, we made some minor textual changes that resolved some overlap and ambiguities in the tool. For example, we merged the categories ‘new information’ and ‘surprise’ in the feedback analysis. We also made some textual adjustments so that, in our opinion, it will help students to focus on taking the intended steps in processing the feedback. For example, think of extra emphasis on silence during the individual steps.

There was also a clear desire from both teachers and students to have a digital version of the conversation tool available, because printing out the individual steps in particular requires a lot of paper. We have complied with this by providing a .pdf-version that can be completed digitally.

• Manual (basic)
• Process chart (basic)
• Canvas basic – step 1-2
• Canvas basic – step 3
• Canvas basic – step 4
• Canvas basic – step 5
• Instruction video

Extension: more room for independence
We spoke to several enthusiastic teachers who would like to structurally work on feedback literacy. While we encourage this enormously, our conclusion was also that the conversation tool did not yet lend itself sufficiently for this purpose because it takes an entire session (50 min.) to complete in it’s full form. Moreover, the tool was developed with inexperienced first-year students in mind. If we assume that those students have learned something from using the tool about processing feedback during the first application, running that extended version a second time is probably not necessary.

Looking for ways to accommodate for this increasing independence of students, we have developed a number of new canvases. Moreover, these can be used in different teaching situations. For instance, we have designed a canvas variant ‘independent analysis’ on which the individual steps (1 and 3 from the basic version) are listed together, with the idea that students can go through this independently in preparation for a lesson or dialogue with their peers. If it is a group assignment, students can then work together on the ‘joint analysis’ canvas, which lists all the joint steps (2 and 4 from the basic version). This is then followed by the final step, the plan of action (Canvas variant ‘action plan separate’), which corresponds to step 5 from the basic version.  If it concerns an individual assignment, it is also possible to move directly from the canvas variant ‘independent analysis’ to the plan of action (Canvas variant ‘action plan separate’). Indeed, the latter canvas can be used jointly as well as individually. Finally, for advanced students, we designed a version of the process chart in which all steps are briefly described and the students themselves choose whether they use the canvases for this or not. PDF versions of all these variants are also available for digital completion.

• Canvas variant – independent analysis
• Canvas variant – joint analysis
• Canvas variant – action plan separate
• Process chart variant

Bonus scenario: Feedback dialogue for individual assignments
Because not all assignments are group assignments, we have also developed an individual variant of the tool even though it is a pity that this individual variant omits the dialogue with peers, as giving meaning to feedback together with peers can be very instructive for understanding the assignment and assessment criteria. We see several possibilities to still include a dialogue, for instance by having students discuss each other’s feedback and feedback analysis in pairs or groups, or by having them think along with each other in the translation of the feedback to improvement actions and questions to the teacher. Students can also submit their questions to the teacher in response to the feedback to their peers first. These are just a few examples of how you can still initiate feedback dialogue between peers, even when working with individual assignments, and we encourage you to explore these opportunities further.

Bonus scenario: multiple sources of feedback
Teaching situations in which students have to deal with multiple sources of feedback are increasingly common in education. We have not specifically taken this into account in the extension of the tool, because many different scenarios are conceivable which amounts to too many variables to consider in the design. However, during the feedback analysis phase, you could ask students to consider the position of each feedback source and with that the value of their feedback. You could then ask to see this reflected in the conclusions they draw from the feedback in the action plan.

Creative Commons with attention
Once again, all materials are free to download, free to use and adapt under a CC licence. However, we would like to remind users that making modifications to the tool may result in important steps being skipped. By skipping or shortening steps, the exercise may contribute less to the development of student feedback participation. For example, we have seen a variant where the plan of action had been cut, with the likely result that students had not yet formulated improvement actions in preparation for the dialogue with the teacher.

We would love to learn from your experiences, so please hear from us if you have started working with the materials, at any scale, in any form or with any scenario! You can share your experiences with us via info@lerenvantoetsen.nl.

The innovation team that developed the tool consisted of Ellen Bredenoort (Saxion), Martje Köhlen (Inholland University of Applied Sciences), Anne Potters (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences), Sylvia Schouwenaars (HZ University of Applied Sciences) and Tamara de Vos (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences), led by Henderijn Heldens (Zuyd University of Applied Sciences). The adapted variants came about in cooperation with Martijn Leenknecht (HZ University of Applied Science). With the [Dutch] toolkit ‘Innovating together in an innovation team’, you can start working with the design methodology yourself.