Emphasize Feedback and Reflection

In this chapter:

Intent
Problem
Solution
Applicability
How to Implement
See Also
Source
References
Community Discussion

Intent

Quality feedback is crucial, and some hypothesize that the pedagogical value of equitable grading comes largely in its ability to emphasize and act on quality feedback. Reflection offers students a means to assess their own progress and change future behavior as a result.

Problem

Learning occurs when students change thinking or behavior. Traditional grading that emphasize points may obfuscate the feedback that is necessary for learning to occur.

Solution

Incorporate various methods for students to receive quality feedback and various opportunities for students to reflect and evaluate their learning. Together, these approaches enable a bidirectional dialogue between educators and students, joining with students to become co-creators of knowledge and scholarly practice.

Applicability

This idea is key to increasing the pedagogical effectiveness of any grading practice, but it is especially beneficial in equitable grading practices that avoid penalizing students for their learning.

How to Implement

To establish trustworthy communication, quality feedback must be “process-oriented, personal, informal, and genuine”. Feedback does not need to necessarily come from educators alone, but also the whole class, peers, or small-groups of students. Educators can also dialogue with students by integrating anonymous feedback into their course design and pedagogical practice, modeling to students how even educators can learn over time.

For reflection, the author:

does roughly 5-6 self-evaluations per semester; some are cursory and others are more intensive. These assignments require students to reflect their progress in relation to course learning outcomes, attendance and participation, willingness to accept and use feedback, risks taken, their own learning process, and pride felt concerning learning.

The author argues that these assignments allow educators greater insight into students’ learning process that would not have occurred without self-reflection.

Source

Source: DiSalvo, Lauren and Nancy Ross. 2022. “Ungrading in Art History: Grade inflation, student engagement, and social equity.” Art History Pedagogy & Practice 7, (1). https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ahpp/vol7/iss1/3

Described by: Kevin Lin

References

Further ideas for reflective assignments and prompts cited by the source include:

Sackstein, 99-120
Stommel, “How to Ungrade;” Jesse Stommel, “How to Ungrade,” in Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), ed. Susan D. Blum (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020), 25–41.
Kristen C. Blinne, “‘Ungrading’ Communication: Awareness Pedagogy as Activist Assessment,” in Grading Justice: Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment, ed. Kristen C. Blinne (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2021) 195–254.
Reitenauer, 103–105; Beckie Supiano, “Grades Can Hinder Learning. What Should Professors Use Instead?” July 19, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190719_ungrading; Blum, “Ungrading and its Necessary Accompaniments,” 56.
Susan M. Brookhart, “A Perfect World is one with No Grades,” ASCD Express (website), July 11, 2019, https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/a-perfect-world-is-one-with-no-grades; Hadley J. Ferguson, “Journey into ungrading” Counterpoints 451 (2013): 202–209.

Community Discussion

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