Roles Interplay between Teachers and Students in the Provisions of Feedback: Establishing a Common Ground

Abstract

Although the critical importance of feedback in the context of formative assessment is self-evident, controversial conceptions concerning teachers’ and students’ roles in the overall feedback practice are still ongoing. To address this dilemma, seeking to uncover the complexity of engagement with feedback, in its entirely, is fundamental. This conceptual article, therefore, aims to illustrate a set of provisions under which having a shared awareness of feedback is believed would support the coordination between teachers’ and students’ efforts toward engagement with feedback, with reference to the notion of feedback literacy. Specifically, the current argument has been framed within the socio-constructivist paradigm which conceptualizes the multifaceted feedback construct as a dynamic social process of communication, with a specific focus on its cyclic and interactive nature. Overall, the outcomes stress the interdepended responsibility of teachers and students in which both contribute to the effectiveness and sustainability of the overall practice of giving and receiving feedback. A key message from the article is that the successful identification of the performance gap and “what’s next” via feedback is never sufficient to evoke and sustain student’s engagement with feedback unless this is meaningfully connected with long-term purposes and informed by the need to fulfill self-actualization potential. Accordingly, attention needs to be redirected more to the individual factors that may significantly influence student’s dispositions toward feedback. Finally, we call for new pathways that support these endeavors while bringing teachers and students into a common ground to better coordinate efforts in between.