How can it help student retention and confidence?
15/12 Many would argue that concentrating on giving students detailed and developmental formative feedback is the single most useful thing we can do for our students, particularly those who have had a struggle to achieve entry to higher education. To do so may require considerable re-engineering, not just of our assessment processes but also of curriculum design as a whole, if we are to move from considering content delivery as the most important thing we do. We need to concentrate our efforts on giving our students detailed and developmental feedback on the thinking they demonstrate in their assignments, rather than just correcting the information they return to us. This lecture aims to examine these issues and also some of the links that can be made between poor retention of HE students and the impact that good assessment processes and practices can have on fostering a climate in which students are less likely to leave early. I will additionally consider the impact that negative self
