The role of teacher’s written formative feedback on students’ critical thinking

Abstract

Formative feedback in higher education has positive effects when it facilitates the development of students’ reflection and self-assessment in learning. That said, the increasing pressures of workload on university teachers make the design of formative feedback strategies more difficult to implement). This study explores innovative ways for promoting teachers’ written formative feedback in the context of undergraduate studies and for assessing their effectiveness. The investigation entails close collaboration with one teacher of Biology at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in the context of teaching ‘evolution’ over a semester (2012/2013). One of the particular challenges was to encourage 88 first-year biology undergraduates to produce critical analyses of a selected press note related to the topic of evolution (i.e., the advent of genetic diseases). The research approach we use is based on a critical social paradigm, assuming principles of action-research. Data were collected through naturalistic non-participant classroom observation and semi-structured interviews (conducted at the end of the semester). All written documents produced by participants were used as part of this analysis. Considering the nature of the data, we use content analysis. Preliminary results show that the teacher’s written comments increased opportunities for students to search for further information, to negotiate and take decisions within their group, to auto- and hetero-reflect before sending their critical analyses to the teacher. Group work allowed the development of critical thinking, collaboration and argumentation.