Student teachers’ reactions to formative teacher and peer feedback

Abstract

Research on students’ perceptions of feedback in higher education has largely focused on students’ general preferences, with little insight into the kind of feedback that students experience. Against this backdrop, the current study investigates students’ reactions to a specific intervention which aimed, using research-informed strategies, to promote teacher and peer formative feedback with two groups of students at a teacher education institution in Norway. The qualitative analysis of 188 written reflections revealed that the students were overwhelmingly positive towards teacher feedback. Peer feedback was valued, though less favourably, suggesting that the role of peer feedback in higher education may need to be reconceptualised to recognise its strengths and acknowledge its limits. Opportunities to engage in feedback dialogue with their instructors were not exploited by the students, leading to the conclusion that such processes may need to be more formally structured and initiated by course instructors.