Insights into the process of providing feedback to students on open-ended problems

Abstract

One of the challenges of implementing open-ended problems is assessing students' responses, as the open-ended nature of the problems allow for multiple appropriate, "good" responses. In particular, formative assessment-giving the students feedback on intermediate solutions-can be particularly challenging when it is hoped that students will understand and respond to the feedback in ways that indicate learning has taken place. This study is part of a larger project that focuses on the feedback that the students are given as they iterate through multiple drafts of their solutions to Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs). In this paper, we report on findings related to Graduate Teaching Assistants' experiences in providing their students with feedback. Two cases are presented: the experiences of a Teaching Assistant who is new to MEAs, and therefore new to the process of giving feedback on MEA solutions, and the experiences of a more experienced Teaching Assistant. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.