The purpose of this research is to investigate lecturers’ experiences of choosing and using technology for feedback in the context of UK higher education. The study takes a critical realist perspective and utilises a narrative interview methodology. Analysis is undertaken using two complementary approaches. First a connecting strategy explores the themes within each participant’s account, and then a categorising strategy looks at similarities and differences between cases. As a product of the analysis, portraits are created to encapsulate each individual lecturer’s experience. The findings provide a thick description of the deliberations undertaken by lecturers in the formation of feedback practice and in the associated technology selection. Participants come from a range of discipline areas and from five different institutions. They use technologies that incorporate text, audio and audio-visual media. The findings demonstrate that practice is shaped by underlying beliefs about how students use feedback, differing conceptions of academic identity, perspectives of students’ technology expectations, the search for efficiencies, changes in the types of teaching undertaken, professional history, and technological confidence. Individual lecturers are shown to exercise different reflective modes and they mediate the influences on practice in the context of personal priorities. Social networks are shown to be very important in framing feedback and technology related concerns. The practice landscape is shown to be contentious as lecturers hold views about each other’s feedback diligence and technology use. Engagement with technology impacted on lecturers’ perceptions of the quality of feedback being produced. It also triggered some lecturers to reflect on feedback through a different lens and to begin to challenge some of their established practices. The study concludes with recommendations to educational developers and to higher education institutions. More research into the relationship that lecturers have with feedback and technology is recommended.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:658116 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Arnold, Lydia Jane |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/2014121/ |
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