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VOLUME XII, NUMBER 22

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION.

Using Test Feedback to
Facilitate the Learning Process

Test feedback has been widely recognized as an
essential part of the teaching and learning process. By
giving useful feedback at the appropriate time and
place, instructors have the potential to provide students
with valuable information, as well as strategies they can
use to improve their academic performance on future
tests or other assessment measures.

Levels of Feedback

In both the research and applied literatures, feedback
is described in many different ways, using many
different labels. The following hierarchy is designed to
synthesize these different labels into an organizational
scheme which highlights their commonalities.

Levell: Simple Knowledge of Results

At Level 1, the instructor provides the stu-
dents with simple knowledge of results (e.g.,
“yes, that is a correct answer” or “no, that is
an incorrect answer”). On an essay question
this would be equivalent to simply writing,
“-0 points,” or “-5 points,” or “C+,” with no
other comments. Feedback at this level
merely tells the students that they were
correct, incorrect, or how far away from
being correct they were with their answer. It
is a simple statement of where students are
with reference to some standard. Although
simple knowledge of results is useful for
some evaluation functions, it is not as
informative as the other levels of feedback.
Knowledge of Results + Identification of the
Error (discussion of where and/or how the
students went wrong)

At Level 2, the instructor provides the
students with knowledge of results and
diagnostic information about their errors.
For example, when discussing an essay
question with a student, the instructor could
say something like this: “It looks like you
spent a lot of time discussing the first part of
the question but did not adequately answer
the second part of the question which was

Level 2:

 

equally as important as the first part.” At
Level 2, the students are not only given infor-
mation about whether or not they were
“right,” or met the standard, but also about
where and/or how they went wrong.
Knowledge of Results + Identification of the
Error + Discussion of the “Best” Answer
In addition to providing simple knowledge
of results and a discussion of where and/or
how the students went wrong, at Level 3 the
instructor also provides information about
what would constitute the “best” answer,
and why that particular answer is seen as the
“best” answer. For example, the instructor
might say that, “Essays which received full
credit included the following information...
and the reason that information was impor-
tant was because....” Thus, at Level 3, the
instructor explains not only what the “best”
answer is but why it is the best.
Knowledge of Results + Identification of the
Error + Discussion of the “Best” Answer +
Discussion of Strategies to Avoid the Prob-
lem in the Future
Feedback at Level 4 would include informa-
tion that was talked about in Levels 1
through 3 and would go on to include
strategies that the students could use to
avoid similar problems. For example, when
discussing an essay question, some useful
strategies for the students would be to: 1)
underline key terms in the question; 2) look
for signal words like “and” that indicate a
two-part question; and/or 3) make an
outline before writing an answer to the
question. Thus, at Level 4, the feedback
communicated to the students includes the
information given at all other levels but also
includes strategies that students could use to
help themselves avoid similar problems.
When Is It Appropriate to Use Each of the Levels of
Feedback?

Ideally, giving Level 4 feedback all of the time would
be best. However, in the real world of post-secondary
education, much of the instructor’s decisions must be

Level 3:

Level 4:

 

    

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THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD) .
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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