Growing a flourishing feedback culture? 

I have come somewhat late into the world of gardening and allotments. I’ve always been happily aware and appreciative of plants growing, but this year has been the first year where I’ve actively been digging, weeding, planting and other -ings that I still don’t really know the names of.  

It has given me a real appreciation of the deep connection between our everyday language and the natural world. Extracting stubborn bits of mare’s tail really does give a vividness to ‘rooting out’ something. And of course there’s ample (well-trodden) analogies to be found from a small patch of earth and what grows there, to how nurturing and growth happens elsewhere.  

But what I did consider anew was the rhythm of tasks and the seasonality and timing involved…as ye sow, so shall ye reap. There’s lots of these sorts of horticultural-calendared or to-do list tasks, with great invocations like ‘don’t let your onions bolt’, ‘manure the celery trench’ or ‘start forcing rhubarb outdoors’. 

To change pitch here, I was revisiting David Boud and Philip Dawson’s article ‘What feedback literate teachers do: an empirically-derived competency framework’, and thinking about the three levels which they ascribe to teachers’ feedback literacy – macro, meso and micro. My first reading of this was initially to thinking of this in hierarchical sense, namely at a micro-level, what can I do in my individual interactions with students to make feedback information useful, what sort of language do I use to frame my comments. I think this is a natural instinct, particularly at the start of the teaching year, when those interpersonal engagements and the unknowns of these come to the fore.  

So whilst these are important considerations, they should not preclude me from considering and addressing (both as an individual and as a colleague in a faculty) macro-level aspects, such as ‘developing student feedback literacy’ or the meso-level example of ‘co-ordinates feedback with other pedagogical practices’.  

Here’s a copy of the framework presented in a slightly formatted version:

But what if we don’t represent this just as a hierarchy, but as calendar of feedback activities with some opportunities to look ahead and plan the feedback work to come, and other feedback activities to engage with in the here and now?  

I have to admit that the two trains of thought collide awkwardly a little here, if I tell you that my gardening book describes August as ‘often a holiday month [when] the garden is neglected. Try to find a friend who will at least keep crops picked – both to avoid waste and to induce the plants to go on producing until you return’ 🤔 , whilst September is summarised as ‘there is nothing much to sow or plant, but plenty to harvest in September’ 🤔🤔.  

But if we continue with the idea of things to sow, things to plant and ‘work’ (which, I think, means practical jobs), then where does that get us? 

September and October 

‘the gardener turns squirrel this month’ 

One of the main areas I would be focusing on is some of the macro-level aspects, such as creating authentic feedback-rich environments and developing student feedback literacy.  

‘Creating a culture of critical reflection’ and ‘modelling feedback processes’ are central to this. ‘Explaining feedback to students and their role in it’ – what opportunities are there to move thinking and behaviour away from feedback as a one-off event to feedback information and feedback processes. These are much harder to embed a much later stages in the course, and also reinforce unhelpful notions of feedback as a brief event after a summative assessment.  

There’s an additional impetus in this year, as the Structure of the Academic Year outline may create the illusion to some that ‘feedback is what happens in January’. 

But there’s also some of the micro-level feedback work to embed here. ‘Identifying and responding to student needs’ is positioned here, but to me this is all about where feedback is, in effect, responsive teaching. Where there’s misconceptions about key aspects and opportunity to address these, where checking for understanding is happening as part of embedded formative learning, these are all forms of feedback and are helpfully outlined in this decision tree.  

November and December 

‘it is the time for digging and spring cleaning; do not wait until spring.’ 

This is unlikely to be the time in which macro-level curriculum design for this year is happening, but rather meso-level approaches such as ‘maximising the effects of opportunities for feedback’ and ‘designing feedback processes that involves peers and others’.  

Sharing examples of how you have acted on professional feedback, being strategic in how peer-feedback activities are designed and ringfencing time for critical self-reflection are likely to be the focus of ‘work’ at this time.  

How will the Consolidation Week work to promote feedback as part and parcel of active and metacognitive learning?  

How will students’ feedback literacy be honed in the Assessment Preparation week? 

Ideally students will have a collection of formative feedback experiences to draw on, but how will they aggregate this cumulative understanding in order to flourish in their assessments?  

There are enough questions for now, but over the course of a year, engaging and returning to these competencies according to need will create tangible benefits for students and staff alike. 

We have an assessment and feedback strategy, but what about an assessment and feedback culture? Some say culture eats strategy for breakfast, but I would say that by taking stock of the different levels of feedback practices, regularly reflecting and attending to different student and staff needs at critical moments is a way of creating, growing and sustaining that culture…and strategy.