Although there is substantial evidence about the positive effects of feedback, a major lack is systematic knowledge about what kinds of feedback are needed by different students, in what forms, and for which types of learning tasks. This project will define and synthesize effective feedback strategies that can be linked to specific features of daily classroom assessment practices. Instead of providing general evidence about effectiveness, the project will summarize, integrate, and interpret a range of feedback studies that are conceptually comparable based on particular mediators and moderators involved in feedback practices. These mediators and moderators would include, for example, difficulty of instructional tasks, cognitive demands tapped by tasks (e.g., declarative, procedural, schematic, or strategic knowledge), or student characteristics (e.g., low or high achievers, low or high motivation.
The project will be guided by three research questions: (1) What constitutes the range of feedback strategies that have been studied in science and mathematics education?; (2) what constitutes the critical mediators and moderators of feedback practices (e.g., learning goals and student characteristics)in which such feedback strategies have been implemented?; and (3) what are the critical characteristics of feedback strategies that empirically have proved to have a positive impact on student learning?
The project will develop a framework, including a conceptual strand that will conceptualize feedback practice considering intrinsic and contextual dimensions and a methodological strand that will be used to describe and evaluate the feedback studies and findings to be synthesized. The proposed framework will provide a language that can be shared within and across multiple forms of research in various disciplines to portray feedback practices. The framework and research questions will also lead to criteria for inclusion and exclusion to be used to identify eligible articles and reports for the synthesis. Based on the framework, we will develop and apply a two-level coding system to specify and evaluate the findings from each eligible study. Finally, the coded information will be summarized to identify patterns and trends across the studies, which in turn will be used for a narrative review and a quantitative summary in the form of a meta-analysis.
Intellectual Merit: The project will result in a substantially more complete and detailed theoretical framework than what currently exists for characterizing effective feedback strategies in science education. This understanding will allow for (1) refinement of a theoretical framework that explains the feedback process and its quality, and (2) concrete, easy-to-apply recommendations for science teachers to effectively and formatively use assessments in their daily work.
Broader Impacts: The study will help professional developers and teachers understand what is required to effectively implement feedback practices that have a positive impact on student learning. The research will also produce clearer criteria for improving, evaluating, and monitoring teachers' feedback practices in daily teaching as well as for designing professional development for pre- and in-service teachers of science and mathematics. Results from the project will also fill in the research gap, contribute to the literature on formative assessment, and help define research and development agendas. The project will create a toolkit for practitioners as well as articles for publication.
