Student Perceptions of Teacher’s Use of Written Feedback and Face-To-Face

Abstract

Teachers provide feedback to their students throughout the instructional sequence, specifically during formative assessments. This feedback can take many forms, including video, audio recordings, face-to-face conferences, and written comments. In research conducted on these four forms of feedback, most studies found that students preferred video, audio, or face-to-face feedback over written comments; however, these studies were almost always conducted at the university level. Middle School students’ perceptions of different feedback methods were not addressed. This qualitative study used open-ended survey questions with two middle school English Language Arts classes (a total of 37 students) to investigate student perceptions of two modes of feedback—solely written comments and written comments accompanying a face-to-face conference. Each class received one form of feedback during the first instructional unit and then another form of feedback during the second unit. Students shared their perceptions about each form following each unit and their preferences after both units concluded. The study found that most students preferred face-to-face conferences with written comments to solely written feedback. The study’s results indicated that a teacher should determine which skills/units would benefit most from face-to-face conferences, remind students to go back and review comments on their work before beginning a summative assignment to help them remember the face-to-face conference, and develop a positive classroom culture regarding face-to-face conferencing with the teacher.