Introduction

Feedback practice should place less emphasis on what teachers do in terms of providing commentary, and more emphasis on how students generate, make sense of, and use feedback for ongoing improvement. Feedback is a complex, contentious topic, and there is no single ‘right’ way of engaging in feedback process with students. Key to shifting from a transmission-focused to a learning-focused feedback paradigm is recognising that, whilst we can provide students with evaluative and directive information in the form of comments on their work, feedback processes cannot take place without the student’s active involvement. Through an evidence synthesis and collation of feedback design cases, we set out to capture evidence of the effectiveness of learning-focused feedback practices, and characteristics of the ‘feedback cultures’ where such practices are adopted effectively. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.