Many students struggle with making sense of feedback information and in applying and transferring it to new contexts. Research literature suggests that low-performing students are especially at risk because they often do not understand assessment criteria and cannot utilise information they receive. This paper addresses this problem through…

Initiating effective feedback processes is a major goal in university teaching. However, systematic investigations of structural feedback elements making instructor feedback economic, concise, motivating and beneficial for learning are still scarce. In our study, we compare two feedback modes with respect to learning gains and changes in…

Since the 1980s an extensive research literature has investigated how to improve student success in higher education focusing on student outcomes such as retention, completion and employability. A parallel research programme has focused on how students engage with their studies and what they, institutions and educators can do to enhance their…

This article explores the relationship between the lack of visible attention to formative assessment in degree specifications and its marginalization in practice. Degree specification documents form part of the quality apparatus emphasizing the accountability and certification duties of assessment. Ironically, a framework designed to assure…

This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a same-year peer-assisted learning (PAL) scheme, introduced in the first year of an undergraduate degree. The students participated in voluntary timetabled PAL sessions which encouraged a cooperative approach through student-directed activities. An action research design was used, and evaluation…

Assessment is critically important to education both for accreditation and to support learning. Yet the literature dealing with formative and summative assessment definitions and terminology is not aligned. This article reports an empirical small-scale study of lecturers in Education at an English university. The research posits that these…