Research brief indirect feedback: A dialoguing approach to assessment

Abstract

Although there is consensus in the current literature that feedback plays a fundamental role to student performance and learning, there is debate about what makes it effective. Particularly, some assessment instruments, like the National Student Survey in the United Kingdom, reveal that evaluation and feedback are systematically among the areas that students are less satisfied with. The aim of this article is to describe the indirect feedback technique, which was devised and used by the principle author in his previous tenure as a professor at the University of Cadiz in Spain and to reflect on how it can be applied to overcome some of the limitations presented in a different context of practice. It is argued that indirect feedback meets many of the principles of good practice (facilitation of self-assessment skills, delivery of quality information about the students’ learning, encouragement of dialogue, and improvement of teaching).