‘My work is bleeding’: Exploring the first year experience of feedback Sam Shields

Context  First year Humanities and Social Science students’ perceptions of feedback  Widening participation and retention  Assessment ‘history’  Learner identity  A sign of ‘belonging’

Literature  Formative assessment  Feedback  Student engagement with feedback  Widening Participation  First-year experience  Barker & Pinard (2014)  Lizzio & Wilson (2013)  Walker & Hobson (2014)

Research methodology  Narrative Inquiry -Developmental trajectories -Learner transition -Generate understanding about particular learner experiences (Cousin, 2009)  Interviews, writing stories, stimuli e.g. feedback sheets  What participants say, but also how they say it…  Metaphor  Contrastive rhetoric

Key findings:  They are writing all over my work and it is like mangled up and most of the lecturers use red pen and I don’t know it kind of gets to me if I open it up and it’s covered in red crosses and marks and it’s horrible. It’s like my work is bleeding. (Josie, interview)  Affective dimension  A difference between positive and constructive feedback  Positive feedback offered confirmation of ‘belonging’  ‘Stuck’ places for students that did not receive ‘positive’ feedback

Liminality  Liminality – betwixt and between  Turner (1969), van Gennep (1960)  Rite of passage  Transitional  Unstable, unclear about status  Structural invisibility  Threshold concept  Meyer & Land (2005)  Lecturer as a ‘significant other’

Implications for policy and practice:  A focus on formative feedback in the first year (low-stakes assignments)  Positive feedback  Resources to support timeliness (reduce the anxiety of waiting for feedback)

Areas for further research?  Larger data sets e.g. students at different institutions, different disciplines  A comparison of ‘stuck’ and ‘enabled’ students  Retention and progress analysis  Lecturers’ perspectives on the impact of first year feedback

Getting published in learning and teaching  Assessment journals e.g. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Assessment: Policy, Principles and Practice  Subject specific journals e.g. Politics  Higher Education Academy journals e.g. Bioscience Education  Generic teaching and learning journals e.g. Studies in Higher Education, Teaching in Higher Education  generic_lt_journals.aspx generic_lt_journals.aspx

References Barker, M. & Pinard, M. (2014) Closing the feedback loop? Iterative feedback between tutor and student in coursework assessments, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39:8, , Cousin, G. (2009) Researching learning in higher education: an introduction to contemporary methods and approaches, London: Routledge Lizzio, A. & Wilson, K. (2013) First-year students’ appraisal of assessment tasks: implications for efficacy, engagement and performance, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38:4, Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005) Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning, Higher Education, 49:3,

References Turner, V. (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul van Gennep, A. (1960) The Rites of Passage, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Walker, S. & Hobson, J. (2014) Interventions in teaching first-year law: feeding forward to improve learning outcomes, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39:3,