Browsing by Author "van Heerden, Martina"

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    �It has a purpose beyond justifying a mark�: Examining the alignment between the purpose and practice of feedback
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2020) van Heerden, Martina
    Research has shown that written feedback is important for studentlearning and development. However, the messages embedded in feed-back may lead to students being misled about what they need to learnor how they need to develop. This article reports on a small-scale inves-tigation into the messages embedded in feedback. Legitimation CodeTheory was used to first conceptualise the often-hidden purpose of adiscipline (English Studies), and concomitantly of feedback within thediscipline, and second to analyse actual comments given to first-yearstudents on their assignments. It was found that there is a clear mis-alignment between the purpose and practice of feedback, thereby sug-gesting that students are receiving misleading messages about whatthey need for success within the discipline. This may have implicationsbeyond merely passing the module. A suggestion is made to activelyconsider, and develop, feedback as a discipline-specific literacy.
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    What lies beneath tutors' feedback? Examining the role of feedback in developing 'knowers' in English studies
    (The University of the Western Cape, 2017) van Heerden, Martina; Clarence, Sherran; Bharuthram, Sharita
    Feedback plays an important role in student learning and development in higher education. However, for various reasons, it is often not as effective as it should be. Many studies have attempted to �solve� the feedback situation by finding new ways to give feedback, or by exploring the various perceptions around feedback to see where the problem lies. In many of these studies, however, the purpose of feedback within disciplines are taken for granted or not actively made visible. This study therefore explores how (or whether) the practice of feedback aligns with the often hidden, taken for granted purpose of feedback in a discipline. The study focused specifically on English Studies, an undergraduate first year literature course at the University of the Western Cape. As the nature of the discipline is often invisible, even to those who are familiar with the course, the study drew on Legitimation Code Theory, and specifically the dimensions of Specialisation and Semantics, to make the invisible purpose of the discipline more visible. In so doing, it sought to enable a clearer understanding of what the purpose of feedback should be; namely, consistent with the underlying purpose of the discipline. English Studies was classified as a rhizomatic knower code, which means that what is valued in the discipline is not possessing knowledge as a study-able concept, but rather possessing the required aptitudes, attitudes, and dispositions. Feedback plays an important role in developing these knower attributes. The study took a qualitative case study approach to obtain a full, detailed account of tutors� feedback-giving practices. Data was collected from a small group of participant tutors, via questionnaires, focus group meetings, individualised interviews, and written feedback on sample essays provided by the tutors. 962 comments, spread over 65 essays, were analysed. The study found that, in terms of Specialisation, there was a misalignment between the purpose and the practice of feedback: feedback did not predominantly and/or progressively focus more on making the knower code more visible. Instead, the feedback was largely focused on a relativist code and a knowledge code. This indicates that students may be being misled about what is valued in the discipline. Additionally, in terms of Semantics, it was found that the feedback, given on single-draft submissions, would be more useful in a drafting cycle and that learning from the feedback was made difficult by the context-dependent comments that were either too complex to be enacted, or would be more appropriate in a drafting cycle. Ultimately, it was found that if there is not a careful consideration of what feedback should focus on, students may be misled about what is valued in the discipline. This could have effects beyond merely passing or failing the course.
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    What lies beneath: exploring the deeper purposes of feedback on student writing through considering disciplinary knowledge and knowers
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017) van Heerden, Martina; Clarence, Sherran; Bharuthram, Sharita
    Feedback plays an integral role in students� learning and development, as it is often the only personal communication that students have with tutors or lecturers about their own work. Yet, in spite of its integral role in student learning, there is disagreement between how students and tutors or lecturers perceive the pedagogic purpose of feedback. Central to this disagreement is the role that feedback has to play in ensuring that students produce the �right� kinds of knowledge, and become the �right� kinds of knowers within their disciplines. This paper argues that, in order to find common ground between students and tutors or lecturers on what feedback is for, and how to both give and use it effectively, we need to conceptualise disciplinary knowledge and knowers anew. We offer, as a useful starting point, the Specialisation dimension of Legitimation Code Theory as both practical theory and methodological tool for exploring knowledge and knowers in English Studies and Law as two illustrative cases. The paper concludes that this analysis offers lecturers and tutors a fresh understanding of the disciplinary knowledge and knower structures they work within and, relatedly, a clearer view of the work their feedback needs to do within these.