Embedding feedback in learning and assessment tasks to support students' professional learning

Abstract

Professional learning involves inducting students to disciplinary substance and engaging them with peers and teachers to practice disciplinary norms. Compared with traditional didactic teaching, active learning pedagogies are more suited to engendering interactive classroom dynamics that are conducive to quality learning outcomes. There also exists the need to support students' attainment of professional learning goals through appropriate assessment design. This chapter explores how students' professional learning may be supported by incorporating feedback strategies into classroom learning and teaching situations and the assessment process. The chapter examines the research question: How does feedback embedded in learning and assessment tasks support professional learning? Situated in a course on preschool management for students in a higher diploma teacher education program, the study involved two classroom observations, a focus group with students and an interview with the course teacher. The findings revealed three interrelated pedagogical strategies that supported students' professional learning: (1) using active learning tasks to provide opportunities for students to exercise professional knowledge and skills; (2) implementing integrated assessment tasks to allow students consolidate and demonstrate increasingly complex learning outcomes; (3) adopting interactive feedback strategies to facilitate students' improvements in different phases of learning. Related to these pedagogical strategies, five main themes that emerged from the findings are critically examined, and recommendations are made for teachers in professional fields in higher education regarding the use of optimal feedback strategies to support students' professional learning.