ABSTRACT
Feedback enables sustainable improvement in students’ skills and understanding, yet effective feedback processes are challenging to implement in mass higher education. An old paradigm of feedback as transmission of comments is being supplanted in current literature by a new paradigm which encourages greater interaction and dialogue between teachers and students. Through a social constructivist lens, this chapter positions feedback as a process whereby students make sense of and act upon comments on their work in order to inform their future learning. Drawing upon the Feedback Cultures project funded by the SRHE, the chapter surfaces what are often perceived to be barriers to the adoption of learning-focused feedback practice. Data from interviews with 28 UK-based academics illustrate common challenges inherent to feedback processes in mass higher education, as well as features of feedback cultures that enable or constrain the development of practice.
