The Stellenbosch University (SU) Teaching Fellows and the Centre for Teaching and Learning would like to invite the SU teaching, learning and assessment community to a research seminar on 'active feedback':
Title: What if students generate their own feedback?
Speakers: David Nicol and Suzanne McCallum (University of Glasgow)
Date: 25 August 2022
Time: 12:45 – 14:00
Place: MS Teams
Summary
When students receive feedback comments from a teacher, they must compare those comments against their work, and they (hopefully) generate new understanding out of that comparison. In this conception, teachers provide information, but it is students who generate (inner) feedback. But what if students were asked to compare their work against information other than comments, in a textbook, video, diagram, journal article, a rubric or some combination thereof? New research shows that, when students are deliberately prompted to do this and to make their inner feedback explicit (e.g., in writing), the results are remarkable. Not only does this
method enhance the depth and scope of students' learning but, importantly, it also develops their capacity to regulate their own learning, the goal of most higher education programmes. Also, teachers can scale up feedback to all students without scaling up their workload. This seminar will explore the thinking behind this method and how to turn it into practice.
Key References
Nicol, D. 2020. The power of internal feedback: Exploiting natural comparison processes.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 46:5, 756-778.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1823314
Nicol, D. 2022. Turning Active Learning into Active Feedback. Introductory Guide from Active Feedback Toolkit, Adam Smith Business School. National Teaching Repository. Educational resource.
https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.19929290
Nicol, D. and McCallum, S. 2022. Making internal feedback explicit: exploiting the multiple comparisons that occur during peer review.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 47:3, 424-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1924620
For more information and resources see
www.davidnicol.net
Video Links
Two-minute video: part of submission for Reimagine Education Award 2020 HERE
15-minute video: Interview with David Nicol: presentation at the Re-imagine Education International Conference 2020 where this work won Silver Award for Innovation in the Science of Learning HERE.
Biographies
David Nicol is Research Professor leading the Teaching Excellence Initiative in the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, and Visiting Professor at the University of Padova, Italy. His role is to work collaboratively with academic staff on educational improvement projects. His research interests are in teaching, learning, assessment and feedback, in e-learning and change management in higher education. His 2006 article on the seven principles of good feedback practice (Studies in Higher Education) is one of the most cited papers internationally on feedback in education over the last 15 years. His recent research and publication on 'The Power of Internal Feedback' won the Silver Award for
Innovation in the Science of learning at the 2020 International Reimagine Education Conference. This research focuses on how learners generate internal feedback in everyday activities and how to harness this natural capacity for feedback agency in educational and professional settings.
www.davidnicol.net
Suzanne McCallum is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Head of Learning and Teaching for Accounting and Finance in the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Her role is to support improvements to learning and teaching across Accounting & Finance degree programmes. As part of the Teaching Excellence Initiative, she has been implementing and evaluating innovations in feedback practices in her own courses and disseminating these ideas internationally through workshops, conferences, collaborations and publications. More information about Suzanne on her staff profile.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/business/staff/suzannemccallum/
Enquiries: Karin Cattell-Holden (kcattell@sun.ac.za)
