Improving Feedback Methods in Education: An Action Research Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This action research project analyzes formative and summative feedback methods.

Action research
Difference between Summative and formative Feedbacks and their execution
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Purpose of the research
Action research can be defined as an investigation process that uses effective tools and
techniques to find out relevant information and then to draw conclusions about the collected and
analysed data. The purpose of this research is to find out the difference between the formative
and summative assessments carried out in educational institutions. The action research will also
emphasise the process of execution of formative and summative assessments. The research will
help to find out the challenges and issues that the teachers face during the summative and
formative assessments. Appropriate methods and tools will be sued to draw reliable and relevant
conclusions.
Features of the research
The main characteristics of this action research are as follows:
 The main feature of this research is that the research is cost effective and will incur low
cost in comparison to the other sorts of research methods.
 Another feature of the research is that the research will focus on the basic concept of
summative and formative feedback.
 The research will throw light on the difference between the two types of assessments.
 This research will also show the execution process of the summative and formative
feedback.
Implications of the research model
For the successful completion of the research, various tools and techniques are being used in the
research. A model of action research is prepared so that all the activities of research are carried
out in an effective manner (Sampson, 2018). The action research process for finding out the
difference between summative and formative feedbacks is given below:
Identification of the issue or the problem
 Gathering of relevant information by making use of effective data collection methods.
 Analyzing and interpreting the collected data.
 Drawing reliable conclusions after the data analysis.
 Preparation of a plan to solve the identified problem.
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 Execution of the plan to solve the issue.
Activity: The authors Thompson, et. al., (2017), says that action research promotes the innovative
educational system and learning processes. The research is capable of finding out the main
differences between the summative and formative feedbacks provided by the teachers in the
educational institutions. Action research is good for the professional growth of the teachers as
well. Another author also expresses that the effective use of action research helps increase the
collaborations between the different institutions and the style of teaching that they incorporate in
the institution.
Justify own choice of an area of practice for action research
The area of research is appropriate for the study as it will have a positive influence on the
teaching style of the tutors and also improve how the teachers provide feedback to the students.
The major differences between the formative and summative feedback will be analysed, and then
effective decisions to solve the related problems will be solved. The application of numerous
tools and techniques to identify the problems will help the educational institutions to take
corrective actions to provide effective solutions to the problems. This action research will follow
a set of activities in the form of a process so that the aims and objectives of the research can be
fulfilled.
Clear intervention strategy.
The intervention strategy is the strategy that is used by the educational institutions to create and
plan for an effective and efficient study process and learning plan. The strategy helps make the
students score good marks and save them from failing (Meyer and Ray, 2017). There is a set
process for planning the intervention strategy to identify the execution of summative and
formative feedbacks provided by the teachers in the educational institutions. The process is as
follows:
 First of all the summative and formative feedbacks that are most common for all the
students must be evaluated and recorded.
 Then after considering the feedbacks, a suitable intervention strategy must be developed
for the students for whom the feedbacks are recorded.
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 When the strategy is developed, the strategy is tested on a small group of students to see
the effects of the strategy.
 If the results of the test strategy are favourable, then the strategy is implemented for all
the students.
 The monitoring and evaluation of the intervention strategy are important to a suitable
method to evaluate the results of the strategy is selected.
 The strategy is communicated to more and more teachers so that most of the students can
be benefitted by the strategy.
Choice and timescales of an intervention strategy
Activity Start date End date Duration
Identification of the
common feedbacks
1 Jan 2019 5 Jan 2019 5 days
Planning for
intervention strategy
Jan 2019 Jan 2019 5 days
Execution of the
strategy
Jan 2019 Jan 2019 5 days
Analysing the results Jan 2019 Jan 2019 3 days
Using the strategy at
large scale
Jan 2019 Jan 2019 7 days
Selection of
monitoring tool
Jan 2019 Jan 2019 3 days
Communication of
the strategy
Jan 2019 Jan 2019 3 days
Ethical and political considerations
In every research, some ethical and political considerations are taken into account. The ethical
considerations are related to the moral values that the researcher must follow while conducting
the research. The ethical consideration of this action research is that the teachers must think in
favour of the students so that they are saved from failing in the examinations. The political
considerations are related to the guidelines that are given by the laws, and it is important for the
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researcher to follow the guidelines. The political considerations are that the researcher must take
into account the pre-determined course of study and plan (Ryan, 2017). The curriculum of the
study and assessment guidelines given by the government must be followed.
Implementation of the intervention strategy
There is a series of steps for the proper implementation of the intervention strategy. The steps are
given beneath:
(Fig. 1: Process of intervention strategy implementation)
(Source: By author)
Activity: According to the authors Edwards and Burns, (2015) intervention strategy is important
to be implemented in the educational institutions so that the failure of students can be eliminated.
There are two types of assessments organised by educational institutions. The feedbacks act as
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Identification of the issue
Checking the avaliablity of th resources
Identifying the current intervention strategy
Development of new intervention strategy
Application of the strategy
Providing effective feedbacks to the students

the saviour for the students by which they can improve themselves and score good marks in the
examinations. The feedbacks also assist the teachers in evaluating the performances of the
students.
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Methods of Action research
Action research is a very effective method to bring positive changes in the educational sector, the
study pattern and the learning styles. The education sector is the sector in which there are lots of
changes taking place every year of every six months. The teachers try to find effective methods
so that the learning process of the students can be made faster. To carry out successful action
research, numerous methods can be used to collect the data for the analysis and concluding the
study (Price, et. al., 2018). The main methods that are used in action research to research in a
good manner are as follow:
 Group interviews of the teachers: The group interview method is the most common
method of collection of data. In this method, teachers are asked to provide information
about the relevant area of research.
 Observation: The observation method is also an easy way to collect important research
data. The notes of the course are observed to draw useful information for the research.
 Questionnaire: Questionnaire is the most commonly used data collection technique in
every type of research. In the questionnaire, the respondents are asked to fill up the
questions given in the questionnaire with their genuine feedbacks.
 Structured Interview: Structured interview method is an interview method in which the
questions to be asked by the interviewee are pre-decided and are in a proper format.
The methods of data collection used in the research are questionnaires and interview methods.
Quantitative and Qualitative data collection
 Quantitative data: The quantitative data is that it has information on all the facts and
figures about the area and topic of research. The most trusted sources to collect the
quantitative data are the secondary sources like the websites, journals and research
papers. They are reliable sources of quantitative data as they are based on the past
researches carried out by other researchers. The quantitative data for this research is
collected from journals and books.
 Qualitative data: The qualitative data is the data that focuses on the non-numerical
aspects of the research topic. The data collection source for the useful qualitative data is
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observation, interview, questionnaire and surveys. The data collection method used in
this research is a questionnaire.
Data analysis methods
After the collection of data, the next step is to analyse the data for solving the issue or the
problem. There are various techniques to analyse the data collected. There are different methods
to analyse quantitative and qualitative data.
 Quantitative data analysis: The data analysis methods for the quantitative data are
descriptive analysis and referential analysis. Both methods have their advantages and
disadvantages. The quantitative data analysis method implemented in this action research
is descriptive data analysis. In the descriptive data analysis, the mean, median and mode
of the data are calculated to interpret the data (Bryman, 2017).
 Qualitative data analysis: To analyse the qualitative data the methods generally used are
content analysis, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and grounded theory analysis. The
main method that has been used in this action research to find the difference between the
summative and formative assessment is the content analysis method. Content analysis is a
very commonly used data analysis method used to analyse the responses given by
respondents of questionnaires and interviewees (Brannen, 2017).
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Qualitativ
e Qunatitative

(Fig 2: Types of data)
(Source: By author)
Literature review
According to the authors Fisher and Frey, (2015), formative feedbacks are provided to the
students during their formative assessment. The author says that the formative feedback is
provided to the students to benefit the students so that their learning process is enhanced. There
is continuous monitoring on the learning process and the learning style of the students so that the
drawbacks in the process can be made out and effective feedback for the improvement of the
learning process can be done.
In contrast to this, the summative feedback is provided to the students at the end of their course.
The feedbacks help the teachers to assign suitable grades to the students by their performance.
The achievements of the students are evaluated by the summative assessment, and their
appropriate feedback is provided to the students.
Other authors Santamaría Lancho, et. al., (2018), also explain the difference between the
formative and summative assessment. In the opinion of the authors, formative feedbacks are
provided to the students based on learning of small content of the course study whereas the
feedbacks of summative assessments are provided by evaluating the learning and performance
based on the full course study chapters. The feedback provided in the formative assessments is a
part of the summative assessments feedbacks. The feedbacks of the summative assessments are
the products of the whole course study and learning process.
In the words of the authors Dixson and Worrell, (2016), the teaching methods used for the
providing formative feedbacks are student’s ratings. The ratings help the teachers to know about
the weak and intelligent students. Another method used by the teachers is the interview. The
interview includes direct questions and answers from the students so that they can present their
learnings and have feedback from the tutors. Various classroom activities are carried by the tutor
to provide the formative feedbacks. The activities include a peer to peer observation that helps
the teachers to have knowledge about the behaviour of the students and then provide effective
feedback to the students. The author also explains the teaching methods that are used by the
teachers to give summative assessments to the students. The methods that they use are multiple
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data types and sources. The classroom activities that are carried out by the tutors are the surveys,
recordings and student’s ratings. At the end of the summative assessment, the students are given
grades based on their performance and with the grades the teachers give feedback to the students
so that they can improve themselves in the next course study.
In the opinion of the authors Harrison et. al., (2017) formative feedbacks are a part of qualitative
data analysis and are process oriented. The feedbacks are more of a diagnostic nature and are
kept confidential. They are personally communicated to the students so that the students can
improve themselves. On the other hands, the summative feedbacks are a part of quantitative data
analysis and are outcome oriented. The feedbacks are based on an overall evaluation of the
students. The feedbacks are given publically to the students.
Justification of Methods of Action research
The methods chosen for this action research are suitable for this research. The reasons are that
the action research will help in identifying the basic differences between the formative and
summative assessments and then after the evaluation of the data collected, better techniques of
providing the formative and summative feedbacks can be developed by the teachers. The
teachers will also be benefitted by the action research as they will be able to take formative and
summative assessments in a better manner. The action research will help the students to improve
their learning process and score high marks in the exams (Coghlan and Coughlan, 2016). The
cycle used in action research is very simple, so it will be easy for the teachers to understand the
process and gain relevant information and inferences from the research study.
The simple cycle of action research method is given below:
Data collection
Data collection is the main part or step of action research. All the conclusions and outcomes are
based on the quality of the data collected for the research. As discussed above, the data collection
method for this action research is quantitative data collection and the qualitative data collection.
The data collection technique used to have information for analysis is the questionnaire method
and the interview method.
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The teachers are asked questions in an interview, and the interview would be a structured
interview.
The questionnaire prepared for the data collection is given below:
Q1. From how many years you have been in the educational sector?
a) Less than 2
b) 5 years
c) 10 years
d) More than 10 years
Q2. What do you think is the major challenge in the educational institutions?
Q3. Why is formative assessment important?
Q4.Which method do you use to give formative feedback?
Q5. What is summative assessment?
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Q6. Which method do you use to give summative feedback?
Q7. Which feedback is more helpful for the students?
a) Formative feedback
b) Summative feedback
Q8. What challenge do you face while providing effective feedbacks?
Q9. Is the current system and process of learning suitable and effective?
a) Yes
b) No
Q10. What is your recommendation for improvement in the current feedback execution method?
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