Assessment and Feedback: the views held by Y12 pupils of teacher feedback following summative assessment

As a head of department at a highly academic independent school I had sought to improve pupil monitoring through the use of regular low-stakes summative assessments in class. This had generated useful data for teachers but I was conscious that students could be more engaged with the formative nature of these assessments. This collaborative intervention was therefore conducted with a focus on how to develop formative assessment processes out of informal summative assessment.

The literature review suggests summative assessment can be used formatively and that this can be achieved through feedback. The feedback must be used formatively and literature stated that summative assessment could be used in this manner provided feedback was acted upon by students and teachers. There were differing opinions in literature as to which feedback method is the most effective, with studies making use of such methods as comment-only, verbal, peer and self-assessment. The following research questions were chosen to explore the value of feedback following summative assessment:

1. How do students perceive the feedback they currently receive following in-class summative assessment?

2. What are students’ views when different methods of feedback are employed?

3. How can teacher feedback be improved?

Three methods, which were different to the normal feedback delivery method, were trialled with students. Two physics teachers, from the same school, participated in this research along with 17 students from two classes of which they share the teaching. Students completed questionnaires before any new feedback methods were trialled, after each new method and after all three methods had been trialled.

It was found that students responses were already very positive about the feedback they were normally receiving in their lessons. Following the trialled methods of feedback, it was evident that students preferred verbal feedback to comment only, or self-assessment. Comment only marking was the least well received with many students unhappy about the removal of grades from their work. Following the three trialled methods the majority of students indicated that they would prefer a mixed methods approach to the feedback they receive in future, making use of self-assessment, comment only and verbal feedback.

Summative assessment can be employed in a formative context, but this can sit difficultly against high-stakes summative assessments that are placed at the forefront of educational achievement. Students have mixed opinions about what works best in helping to progress their learning towards their desired goal and as such not every feedback method will work for all students, meaning teachers need to plan for the use of multiple methods in their teacher scheme. This project will form the basis for departmental discussion and collaboration on how best to improve the reflective skills of our students and implement formative assessment processes out of informal summative assessments. These processes should be ultimately empowering students to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning and develop them as self-reflective learners.

Keywords: MLT
MLT 2021