The Conscientious Consumer: Reconsidering the role of assessment feedback in student learning

This article reports the initial findings of a 3-year research project investigating the meaning and impact of assessment feedback for students in higher education. Adopting aspects of a constructivist theory of learning, it is seen that formative assessment feedback is essential to encourage the kind of 'deep' learning desired by tutors. There are a number of barriers to the utility of feedback outside the sphere of control of individual students, including those relating to the quality, quantity and language of comments. But the students in the study seemed to read and value their tutors' comments. Their perceptions of feedback do not indicate that they are simply instrumental 'consumers' of education,…