Feedback culture
In learning and instruction processes, feedback is an utter important support und regulation tool, which can be designed in very different ways (Narciss, 2006). Feedback can thereby be self-generated by the learner (internal feedback), as well as by other persons (external feedback). But not every feedback is always helpful. Research focus of the chair of psychology of learning and instruction therefore especially is on the professionalization of teachers regarding the mechanism of feedback,the implementationand the design of feedback for supporting learning processes.
Feedback plays a crucial role in learning situations. It can take multiple functions and it has various effects on different levels. Feedback can be used to reinforce correct answers, but also as a source of information for error correction. Furthermore it can be used as a source of motivation or as a tutor for task processing. Interactive tutoring feedback supports learners in their learning process through beneficial information on how to proceed without directly offering the correct answer (Narciss 2006). In school, feedback plays a crucial role to support learning and instruction. Besides it is one of the most important tasks in teaching-education to enable teachers to generate interactive feedback that promotes learning.
The chair of psychology of learning and instruction focusses on the design and evaluation of feedback in different contexts and projects. In the project Sylber feedback is used for generating authentic teaching situations and to professionalize future teachers. The SERENA project developes and evaluates feedback strategies for a serious game. The AtuF project deals with adaptive tutorial feedback. Also peer feedback is a research topic of the chair. It describes feedback, that learning of equal rank give to each other regarding the learning results.
All projects are based on the interactive two-feedback-loops-model (ITFL) by Narciss (2006). This model integrates current findings about conditions and effects of feedback (Narciss 2006).
Contact: Prof. Dr. Susanne Narciss, Christin Höppner, Olaf Peters
Selected publications:
Narciss, S. (2006). Informatives tutorielles Feedback: Entwicklungs- und Evaluationsprinzipien auf der Basis instruktionspsychologischer Erkenntnisse. Münster: Waxmann.
Narciss, S. (2013). Teacher´s Assistant. International Innovation, October 2013, S. 19-21. [download]
Narciss, S., Sosnovsky, S., Schnaubert, L., Andrès, E., Eichelmann, A., Goguadze, G., Melis, E. (2014). Exploring feedback and student characteristics relevant for personalizing feedback strategies. Computers & Education, 71C, S. 56-76. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2013.09.011 5-year impact factor: 3.305.