An advantage of participatory feedback is that the
instructor may learn about items that were not well
written or were ambiguous. The session can be a learning
tool to reteach important points. Open discussion about
the exam is especially appealing to instructors who want
to foster interaction in their classrooms. These interac-
tions, however, can become heated ina test feedback
situation. The instructor may need to redirect hostile and
escalating verbal behavior from the students.

Whole-class non-participatory feedback: Students are
asked to reserve their comments and questions about the
exam for a later time. The instructor may have students
come during office hours to discuss the exam or have
them write out their comments and submit them for
consideration.

An advantage to this feedback is that it allows the
instructor to complete the feedback to the class very
quickly. Items that few or no students missed may be
skipped over and explanations limited to the most
difficult items. Students are given an alternative format in
which to voice their comments when they can calmly and
logically reflect on an argument. Both student and
instructor are given time to reflect on how an item should
have been answered and graded. However, only the more
motivated students tend to visit the instructor during
office hours or write out an argument about an item.
Instructors will not be as likely to hear from less moti-
vated students—the very ones that most likely had
difficulty with the exam. Moreover, the instructor will not
have an opportunity to monitor the class’ understanding
of an item.

Small-group feedback: The class is separated into small
groups of three or four students, and the groups are asked
to develop an “answer key” to the exam. Students discuss
each item and come to a conclusion about the correct
answer. While the groups discuss the items, the instructor
can circulate among them.

There are a number of advantages to using a small-
group feedback format. In these sessions all students have
the opportunity to be active participants in the discussion.
Students who correctly answered items explain them to
those students who did not (a peer-tutoring experience).
A disadvantage of this feedback session is that it is time-
consuming. Also, some students may be reluctant to
reveal their errors and discuss them. There may be a
tendency for those students who are more verbal and
who do well on the exam to dominate the group. Clear
explanation of how the groups should proceed and close
monitoring of the groups by the instructor can help offset
these disadvantages.

Individual feedback: The instructor holds individual
test-feedback sessions with each student. These sessions

may be scheduled during extended office hours or during
a class activity that is not being led by the instructor. The
instructor can help the student identify and remediate
misconceptions, and strategies that an individual student
may use on future exams can be explored.

The advantage of these sessions is that the instructor
can target the feedback to particular student needs.
Disagreements about particular items may be discussed
in a non-public manner and addressed at length by the
instructor. The greatest disadvantage is the time they take
to complete; discussions with individual students in large
classes must be brief.

Conclusion

Test-feedback sessions can be conducted smoothly
when instructors help prepare students for the exam,
clearly explain the criteria used to grade the exam,
prepare for the subsequent feedback session, and struc-
ture the feedback session appropriately to the characteris-
tics and needs of the class.

Laura M. Stough, Visiting Assistant Professor, Educational
Psychology

For further information, contact the author at Texas A&M
University, College of Education, College Station, TX
77843-4225.

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

October 27, 1995 Vol. XVII, No. 25

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1995
Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

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