Providing fair feedback
A female student sees that her assessment is based upon her ‘hard work and efforts’, while she sees that a male student with the same grade is rewarded for his ‘intelligence and insight’. This makes the female student feel poorly as the feedback implies that her grade cannot be attributed to her intellect.
It is important to give students feedback on their assessment in order to justify the grade given, and to identify their areas for improvement. The way that teachers convey this feedback to students impacts upon their perceptions of themselves and their ability, which, in turn, affects their future learning and engagement
Graham, S. (2020). An attributional theory of motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101861.
Harber, K. D., Gorman, J. L., Gengaro, F. P., Butisingh, S., Tsang, W., & Ouellette, R. (2012). Students’ race and teachers’ social support affect the positive feedback bias in public schools. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1149–1161.
Pekrun, R. (2006). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 315–341.
. Therefore, it is important to provide accurate, detailed, and personalised feedback on how their performance relates to the expected standard. It is important to note positive aspects and provide encouraging and constructive feedback that leaves students feeling in control of their future outcomes and confident that they can improve based on their feedback.
Based on
Pekrun, R. (2006). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 315–341
Reyna, C. (2000). Lazy, Dumb, or Industrious: When Stereotypes Convey Attribution Information in the Classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 12(1), 85–110.
Reyna, C. (2008). Ian is intelligent but Leshaun is lazy: Antecedents and consequences of attributional stereotypes in the classroom. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 23(4), 439-458.
Tools
This can be done in the following ways:
- Provide precise, informative feedback rather than simply a letter or number grade (or a class ranking). Where possible, provide a model of a better suited approach to the assessment, and/or suggest reference material to help the student improve.
- Provide personalized feedback that targets personal actions and behavior needing improvement for the specific assessment, rather than about the student’s general character or group membership.
- Provide positive feedback recognizing the student’s strengths and conveying confidence that productive improvements can be made in future assessment.
Based on
Higher Education Academy. (2014) Assessment and feedback
Cuseo, J. (2021). Effective culturally-inclusive assessment of student learning and academic performance.
Additional Resources
The consequences of stereotype threat on the academic performance of White and non-White lower income college students: (PDF) The consequences of stereotype threat on the academic performance of White and non-White lower income college students (researchgate.net)
Stereotype threat: The effect of expectancy on performance: Stereotype threat: The effect of expectancy on performance | Request PDF (researchgate.net)
