Authentic feedback: supporting learners to engage in disciplinary feedback practices

• Published in: Assessment and evaluation in higher education Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 286 - 296
• Main Authors: Dawson, Phillip, Carless, David, Lee, Pamela Pui Wah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 17.02.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Affective Behavior; Authentic assessment; authentic feedback; Cognitive Ability; College Faculty; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer Software; Decision Making; Difficulty Level; Educational evaluation; Feedback; Feedback (Response); feedback literacy; Foreign Countries; Guidelines; Hospitals; Information Science Education; Information Technology; Introductory Courses; Learner Engagement; Medical Education; Medicine; Patients; Pediatrics; Performance Based Assessment; Social Media; Student Evaluation; Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Methods; Undergraduate Students; Hong Kong; Australia
• ISSN: 0260-2938; 1469-297X
• DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2020.1769022

How can learners be supported to engage productively in the kinds of feedback practices they may encounter after they graduate? This article introduces a novel concept of authentic feedback to denote processes which resemble the feedback practices of the discipline, profession or workplace. Drawing on the notion of authentic assessment, a framework for authentic feedback is proposed with five dimensions: realism, cognitive challenge, affective challenge, evaluative judgement and enactment of feedback. This framework is exemplified and interrogated through two cases of authentic feedback practice, one in the subject of digital media in an Australian university, the other focussed on bedside rounds in medicine at a university in Hong Kong. The framework enables the identification of both highly authentic aspects of feedback, and aspects that could be made more authentic. The framework informs the design of feedback practices that carry the potential to bridge university and workplace environments.