‘My work is bleeding’:
Exploring the first year
experience of feedback
Sam Shields
Context





First year Humanities
and Social Science
students’ perceptions of
feedback
Widening participation
and retention
Assessment ‘history’
Learner identity
A sign of ‘belonging’
Literature

Formative assessment

Feedback

Student engagement with feedback

Widening Participation

First-year experience

Barker & Pinard (2014)

Lizzio & Wilson (2013)

Walker & Hobson (2014)
Research methodology

Narrative Inquiry
-Developmental trajectories
-Learner transition
-Generate understanding about particular learner experiences (Cousin,
2009)

Interviews, writing stories, stimuli e.g. feedback sheets

What participants say, but also how they say it…

Metaphor

Contrastive rhetoric
Key findings:

They are writing all over my work and it is like
mangled up and most of the lecturers use red
pen and I don’t know it kind of gets to me if I
open it up and it’s covered in red crosses and
marks and it’s horrible. It’s like my work is
bleeding. (Josie, interview)

Affective dimension

A difference between positive and
constructive feedback

Positive feedback offered confirmation
of ‘belonging’

‘Stuck’ places for students that did not
receive ‘positive’ feedback
Liminality

Liminality – betwixt and between

Turner (1969), van Gennep (1960)

Rite of passage

Transitional

Unstable, unclear about status

Structural invisibility

Threshold concept

Meyer & Land (2005)

Lecturer as a ‘significant other’
Implications for policy and
practice:

A focus on formative
feedback in the first year
(low-stakes assignments)

Positive feedback

Resources to support
timeliness (reduce the
anxiety of waiting for
feedback)
Areas for further research?
 Larger
data sets e.g. students at different
institutions, different disciplines
 A comparison of ‘stuck’ and ‘enabled’
students
 Retention and progress analysis
 Lecturers’ perspectives on the impact of
first year feedback
Getting published in learning and
teaching

Assessment journals e.g. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher
Education, Assessment: Policy, Principles and Practice

Subject specific journals e.g. Politics

Higher Education Academy journals e.g. Bioscience Education

Generic teaching and learning journals e.g. Studies in Higher
Education, Teaching in Higher Education

http://www2.hull.ac.uk/administration/sotl_network/sotl_resources/
generic_lt_journals.aspx
References
Barker, M. & Pinard, M. (2014) Closing the feedback loop? Iterative feedback
between tutor and student in coursework assessments, Assessment & Evaluation in
Higher Education, 39:8, 899-915,
Cousin, G. (2009) Researching learning in higher education: an introduction to
contemporary methods and approaches, London: Routledge
Lizzio, A. & Wilson, K. (2013) First-year students’ appraisal of assessment tasks:
implications for efficacy, engagement and performance, Assessment & Evaluation
in Higher Education, 38:4, 389-406
Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2005) Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge
(2): epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and
learning, Higher Education, 49:3, 373-388
References
Turner, V. (1969) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure,
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
van Gennep, A. (1960) The Rites of Passage, London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul
Walker, S. & Hobson, J. (2014) Interventions in teaching first-year law:
feeding forward to improve learning outcomes, Assessment & Evaluation
in Higher Education, 39:3, 326-338