Feedback Assessment

Definition: Feedback assessment helps students with self-regulation of learning by helping them understand their learning goal and how close their current work is to it and what could be done next. Feedback is usually a part of formative assessment. Feedback is a response to student work to support further learning.

Description: Clear descriptive feedback to assess where students are in their learning and what next steps could be taken to improve their work. Feedback supports cognition as it can help them realize which knowledge and skills are strong and which are weak. Sometimes feedback clears misunderstandings and misconceptions. Feedback supports metacognition, students ́ awareness of their own thinking. Effective feedback shows students how to look at their work using criteria from the assignment and teach them self- assessment skills.

Benefits: Effective feedback enhances students ́ cognitive processing, increases their autonomy, fosters resiliency and provides strategies for next feasible steps. Students become better at appraising their own work and learn the value of review and revision and reshaping of work for improvement. Mistakes are viewed as opportunities for learning. Students are not afraid to ask for help. Assignments build on strengths and practice to overcome weaknesses.

Challenges: Some students will not look seriously at descriptive feedback and only look at the grade if feedback is given with a grade. The optimum time for feedback can be a challenge as the typical sequence of classroom activities and the time to turn in assignments are not supportive to written or discursive feedback. Students often look at grading as evaluation and judgement but the feedback must preferably be experienced as description and information. Feedback can be time consuming.

Applied to entrepreneurial education: Feedback assessment can be a good way to facilitate development of generic or transversal skills. In order for feedback assessment to be constructive in EE (or other kinds of education) several advices can help to make it more effective:
Be positive, include affirmations, name good qualities in students’ work, point out what needs amendments. Be clear. Be specific enough to be helpful but not so specific that the work is done for the student. Be descriptive and focus on the work and the process the student used to do the work. The tone should be constructive not demanding. It should be communicative – ask students response (what could you add?). Refer to criteria.