Saturday, June 26, 2010

Response to Research on CBI

Providing Feedback in Computer-based Instruction:

What the Research Tells Us

  • "First of all, once the requisite programming is in place, computers can tirelessly provide feedback in response to student work. Unlike feedback from an instructor or tutor, this feedback can

remain unbiased, accurate, and nonjudgmental, irrespective of student characteristics or the nature of the student response."

  • How in the world is it an advantage to take out the factor of students' characteristics and nature of the response when providing feedback? In a perfect world, learners accept feedback humbly in a desire to learn. In the world we live in, learners accept feedback very different ways. While there are students who do accept feedback readily, there are also learners who are very defensive and prideful. This seems to be an important factor in deciding how to give feedback… a factor that computers can't compute.

  • "This paper does not address the growing body of literature surrounding the use of motivational, process-oriented, and goal-directed feedback (feedback that provides learners information about their progress toward a desired goal as opposed to feedback on discrete responses)."
    • This seems to be a shame. Goal-directed feedback seems to point users to acquiring information/skills as a medium to accomplish something, rather than acquire information/skills for the sake of doing it.

  • "From this perspective, errors are not viewed so much as mistakes as they are a source of information about students’ cognitive processes (see Bruning, Schraw & Ronning, 1999). Thus,

errors not only are an expected part of learning, but are an important resource for learning and teaching."

  • If this is true, then knowledge of charateristics and the nature of the response seem invaluable.

  • "Verification is the simple judgment of whether an answer is correct or incorrect, while elaboration is the informational component providing relevant cues to guide the learner toward a correct answer. Most researchers now share the view that successful feedback (feedback that facilitates the greatest gains in learning) must include both verification and elaboration."
    • Doesn't this depend heavily on the content/subject matter?

  • "Topic-specific elaboration leads the learner through the correct answer, but it does not address incorrect responses. The most specific and direct form of feedback is response-specific. Response-specific elaboration addresses both the correct answer and incorrect response choices; if a learner selects an incorrect response, response-specific feedback explains why the selected response is incorrect and provides information about what the correct answer should be."

  • Types of Feedback
    • No Feedback - number of correct responses
    • Knowledge-of-response - whether question is correct or incorrect
    • Answer-until-correct
    • Knowledge-of-correct-response - tells students the correct answers
    • Topic-contigent - takes students to where the correct info can be located
    • Response-contigent - why the incorrect answer is wrong and the correct answer is right
    • Attribute-isolation - focuses learners on the key components of the concept

  • Key aspects of effective CBI feedback
    • Elaboration
      • Findings contradictory - Could this be because the content plays a large role in type of feedback?
      • Are there different subjects where elaboration just isn't helpful?

  • student achievement levels
    • Low-level need immediate feedback, higher-level need delayed feedback
      • Does confidence play into this phenomenon?
    • Low-level need knowledge of correct response, not answer until correct
      • Again, does confidence influence this?
  • depth of understanding
  • attitude toward feedback
    • Most want more than just no response or even knowledge-or-response
    • What about attitude towards subject/topic?
  • learner control
    • since low ability learners tend to be less confident in their own

academic skills and less aware of their metacognitive processes, they

may be inclined to select feedback that provides them with the correct

answer as opposed to the type of feedback that promotes the greatest

learning.

  • response certitude
    • Levels of certitude (comprehension to guess can account for a correct answer)
    • High-level use quick feedback, low certitude spend more time with feedback
      • How do we know the certitude level? Student response?
  • timing.
    • Concept acquisition - immediate feedback
    • Long-term retention - delayed feedback

"The challenge therefore is to identify the type of feedback that is most effective in specific educational settings." (There is no silver bullet)

Conclusion

  • Timing of feedback depends on learner's level, nature of the learning task, and the goal of the learning task
  • Prior knowledge dictates verification or verification+ elaboration (though the latter is generally preferred)

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