Designing and evaluating feedback in instructional contexts

Since feedback is a key element of instructional processes, it is used in various ways featuring different feedback types and contents.

Despite a large body of research investigating the influencing factors and effects of feedback, there are many open questions:

• What content-related aspects of feedback need to be considered in order to provide the learner with valuable information without offering the correct response immediately?
• What aspects of feedback presentation help learners accept and process feedback-related information?
• How do we adapt content-related aspects of feedback and feedback presentation to critical situational and individual factors?
• How do feedback types underlying differences in situational and individual factors vary in their cognitive, motivational, and metacognitive effects?

With regard to the questions mentioned above, we are investigating the design and evaluation of the following feedback types:

• Informative tutoring feedback (ITF)
  Multiple-try feedback strategies providing elaborated feedback components that guide the learner toward successful task completion without offering the correct response immediately.
• Adaptive tutoring feedback (AtuF)
  Feedback effects depend on situational and individual factors within the instructional context. Informative tutoring feedback adapted to these situational and individual factors is called adaptive tutoring feedback.
• Peer-Feedback 
  Feedback given to each other amongst individuals of the same social status is called peer feedback when applied in an instructional context.

Contact Persons : Prof. Dr. Susanne Narciss, Olaf Peters

Selected Publications

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  

Narciss, S. (2013). Teacher´s Assistant. International Innovation, October 2013, S. 19-21. [download]

Narciss, S. (2013). Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for digital learning environments on the basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model. Digital Education Review, 23, 7-26. [Accessed: 19/06/2013] http://greav.ub.edu/der

Narciss, S. (2012). Feedback in instructional contexts. In N. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Learning Sciences, Volume F(6), pp. 1285-1289. New York: Springer Science & Business Media, LLC.

Narciss, S. (2012). Feedback strategies. In N. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Learning Sciences, Volume F (6), pp. 1289-1293. New York: Springer Science & Business Media, LLC.

Strijbos, J.-W., Narciss S., & Dünnebier, K. (2010). Peer feedback content and sender's competence level in academic writing revision tasks: Are they critical for feedback perceptions and efficiency? Learning and Instruction 20, 291-303. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.08.008

More publications can be found on the pages of contact persons.