Getting the Message across: The Problem of Communicating Assessment Feedback
Abstract
Current literature provides useful insights into the role of assessment feedback in student learning, yet fails to recognise its complexity as a unique form of communication. This article outlines ideas emerging from ongoing research into the meaning and impact of assessment feedback for students in higher education. We argue that new models of communication are required to understand students' responses to the language of tutors' comments, and that issues of discourse, identity, power, control and social relationships should be central to any understanding of assessment feedback as a communication process. Implications of adopting an alternative perspective for research and practice are identified and discussed.
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Not all feedback messages are received and understood as intended, especially when the feedback is vague, misaligned with expectations, or unclear.
“Students do not always receive feedback in the way the teacher has intended (Higgins et al., 2001).”
From The Next Black Box of Formative Assessment: A Model of the Internal Mechanisms of Feedback Processing (2022) · cites this paper as Higgins et al., 2001
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- Authors
- Higgins, R., Hartley, P., & Skelton, A.
- ORCID
- Higgins, Richard
- Venue
- Teaching in Higher Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2001-04
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 269-274
- ISSN
- 1356-2517 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-1294
- OpenAlex
- W1994469296
- Cited by
- 549
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 93 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 20.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Teaching in Higher Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Student Assessment and Feedback
- Social Sciences › Education › Evaluation of Teaching Practices
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Communication in Education and Healthcare
- Keywords
- assessment feedback, feedback communication, student responses to feedback, discourse, student identity, university teaching
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