Open AccessFeedback: The Heart of Good Pedagogy
Author(s) -
Ella R. Kahu
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
new zealand annual review of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1178-3311
pISSN - 1171-3283
DOI - 10.26686/nzaroe.v0i17.1530
Subject(s) - redress , psychology , focus (optics) , higher education , cognition , pedagogy , peer feedback , mathematics education , political science , physics , optics , neuroscience , law
Researchers agree that while feedback is central to learning it is under-researched and under-theorised. It could also be argued that within the tertiary sector, feedback is also under-utilised. This article reviews the literature on external formal feedback in higher education settings and makes recommendations to help redress this lack. Following a summary of the effects of feedback on achievement and learning, the different levels at which feedback operates, evaluative, motivational, and cognitive, are discussed. Strategies for increasing the efficacy of feedback, in particular timing and focus, are identified. Moves towards more contemporary constructivist understandings of learning have led to a focus on the role of feedback in developing self-regulated learners and how it is mediated by students’ beliefs. It is argued that this results in a need for a shift towards a more student-centred view of feedback.