Negotiating feedback: lecturer perceptions of feedback dissatisfaction

Abstract

This study analyses lecturers’ perceptions of feedback provided to university undergraduates and why in many cases it appears to prove so unsatisfactory to students. Recent research into the issue of feedback in higher education (HE) suggests that most existing studies on the subject have focused on students, whereas there is far less work on teachers in relation to formative learning (Bailey, 2008; Bailey and Garner, 2010). Indeed, Evans (2013) notes that only 7.1% of research articles she explored in her wide-ranging review of existing assessment and feedback literature focused exclusively on lecturer perspectives. Therefore, in addition to considering the findings of existing literature, this study explores the results of five interviews with HE History lecturers to explore their understanding of the issue of student dissatisfaction with feedback.

Keywords

• assessment and feedback
• feedback literacy
• undergraduate teaching
• improving feedback
• literature on feedback and assessment.