TPP. Blog Post Four. Improving Formative Verbal Feedback through Traffic Light Prototype.

Introduction.
This blog post will review the verbal formative feedback activities that are implemented in MA Design for Art Direction (MADAD) in the context of presentations 1, reviews 2 and crits 3 (in the context of this post, I will universally refer to these as just presentations). Looking at how feedback could be improved upon based on student data collected from Course Committee Meetings, Unit Surveys and anecdotal insights.

Context.
All five units on the MADAD course integrate presentations by students, which involve verbal feedback from their peers and tutors. The most common model implemented is a timed presentation of 05minutes, and then feedback from a student, then tutor, or tutors. There are informal work in progress applications of this, and more formal formative presentations closer to the students summative submissions, where clients or guests can be invited. Students can find these presentations intimidating because speaking in front of colleagues and tutors requires practice. At the beginning of the year in the Autumn term we establish a safe space for learning, and a helpful critical voice for feedback. We accomplish this through roleplaying the feedback for students, as in we use the praise-critic-praise method or the feedback sandwich (Sadler, D.R. 1989), to demonstrate good practice. Discussions on being objective and providing feedforward comments (Brookhart, S. M. 2017). This is supplemented with sessions run by Language Development and Academic Support.

Over the years this method has proven successful, and students presenting, and students feeding back both develop important skill sets. As there is a big emphasis on safe feedback, in the Autumn term, we have regularly received feedback from some students, not all students, that they are open for more critical feedback. Which provides an interesting opportunity. How can we provide more critical feedback for students that desire it, while maintaining a safe space? Fostering Self Determination Theory model (Ryan, R. M., and Deci, E. L. 2000). As a tutor when presenting feedback, you consider what is going to be useful for that specific student, what can be implemented in the timeframe, and how receptive the student is emotionally. This is employed in parity across all of the students.

Trial Changes.
Taking into consideration the student feedback on wanting more criticality, there is the intentions to trial the Traffic Light system in the Summer term of 2024 with the MADAD course. This system is an invented system, and would provide more autonomy to the students to select the feedback type that they feel is of most use to them. Using the colours of the Traffic Light, Red, Amber and Green, the students would choose between one of these to dictate the criticality of their feedback. Red being critical, Amber being modest, and Green being constructive. This was pitched to the MADAD student on Monday 11^th March with a positive reception.

Possible Pros.
Provides students further autonomy to dictate their learning journey.
Provides feedback specific to the student’s needs.
Placebo effect, even if the feedback was not to change too dramatically, they will feel like it has.
They understand the feedback in a more specific context.

Possible Cons.
Peer pressure to choose a colour based on the trend of their colleagues.
Not being objective on their own personal needs.
Valuing less the feedback they receive if they choose Amber or Green.

Possible props.
The intentions are to make physical props for this to be used onsite, and elect emojis for online classes. Performance adds an element of excitement and engagement to the learning process. When this idea was briefly presented in the PgCert Assessment feedback session, a colleague suggested using memes.