ABOUT THE DISCUSSION

I am not very sure about the amount of research that exists concerning how to give effective and meaningful feedback to students.

As all of us know, feedback is a very important part of the assessment process. Our assessment does not finish when we grade or when we say 'well done' or 'you need to improve'; but, it is a process that also covers giving significant feedback to students so that they know what areas need to be improved and how they can do it.

That is why I believe that more research should be done on the way we give feedback to students, to our students in Colombian public schools. As it was highlighted in the reading and as it has been stated by different authors, in each stage of our development we learn in different ways, in the same way we need to be assessed in different ways, and also, I think that we should be given feedback in different ways.

In order to assess our students, we need to take into account different learning styles, likes and dislikes, multiple intelligences, background and conditions at home, etc. In the same way, I think that we need to pay special attention to those same aspects when we are going to give feedback. As we also know there are different difficult situations that our students have to live and go through such as economical, social and psychological ones; and those are issues that affect them. So I really think that we should investigate more how to give the feedback taking into account those conditions.

I believe that we cannot give feedback to one student that suffers violence at home in the same way that we give it to a student that is loved. We cannot give feedback to a student that has emotional problems in the same way as we do with a student that is more emotionally balanced. And of course, we have to think also of the different ages when we are going to give feedback. It is different to give feedback to a 10 year-old kid than to an adult.

I think this is a worth-investigating topic in our public schools in Colombia. In that way, if we know more about this topic, we can improve our quality of education and provide our students with more enriching learning experiences.