Students’ Perceptions of Written Instructor Feedback on Student Writing

Abstract

Research Question. How do students perceive instructor feedback on their writing when different feedback approaches are presented?

Literature Review. Previous literature on instructor feedback on student writing suggested that instructors take the view of a reader as a way to offer student writers encouragement and criticisms while prompting a sense of audience awareness in student writers (Elbow, 1973; Brannon & Knoblauch, 1982; Shaughnessy, 1977). Shaughnessy, Olson (1999), Hesse (1993), and Elbow (1986) also recommended using feedback as an opportunity to facilitate a dialogue between instructors and students. Kent (1989) and Dobrin (1999) argued that feedback introduces student writers to new discourse communities and their underlying beliefs and that it is important of instructors to be conscientious of this fact.

Previous research of student perceptions of instructor feedback on their writing has indicated that students prefer feedback that is specific and elaborate (Straub, 2000) and that focuses on their writing more so than their ideas (Lynch & Klemans, 1978). Whether students value feedback on grammar is debated in the literature (Lynch & Klemans, 1978; Shaughnessy, 1977).

In this study, I have attempted to follow in Nordlof ’s (2014) footsteps and move away from the reductionist facilitative-directive spectrum in which offering more explicit feedback is seen as sacrificing student agency. Instead, I analyze the results of this study through a scaffolding paradigm, using degrees of directness to categorize feedback.