Feedback loops and the longer-term: towards feedback spirals

• Published in: Assessment and evaluation in higher education Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 705 - 714
• Main Author: Carless, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 04.07.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: College students; Educational evaluation; Feedback; Feedback (Response); feedback literacy; feedback loops; feedback spirals; Foreign Countries; Grammatical aspect; Learner Engagement; Learning; Learning Processes; Learning strategies; Literacy; Longitudinal Studies; Self concept; Student Experience; Student Reaction; Undergraduate Students; Hong Kong
• ISSN: 0260-2938; 1469-297X
• DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2018.1531108

A key challenge for feedback practice involves promoting student uptake through the closing of feedback loops. This paper investigates feedback loops by using the concepts of single and double-loop learning to interrogate student responses to feedback. Single-loop learning tackles an identified problem or task, whereas double-loop learning additionally re-evaluates how the problem or task is approached. Evidence from a five-year longitudinal enquiry into four undergraduate students' experiences of feedback is used to analyse feedback loops. Students reported a variety of experiences: failing to engage significantly with end-of-semester comments; short-term uptake within modules which had two assignments; and longer-term efforts at improving their learning strategies. A model of long-term student engagement with feedback is proposed, including single-loop feedback processes, double-loop feedback processes and unresolved learning puzzles. Whereas feedback loops are mainly focused on the shorter-term, it is suggested that feedback spirals represent an alternative way of analysing complex, iterative longer-term learning processes. Implications for practice focus on student self-regulation and the development of student feedback literacy.