A useful kind of interaction? evaluations by university students of feedback on written assignments

In content subjects, university teachers hope that students find their comments on written assignments useful contributions to student learning of content and disciplinary writing. However, teachers often do not know what effect this form of interaction has on student readers. In this study we investigated student reactions to teacher feedback in a law subject. Data included teacher feedback written on 76 student assignments, responses by 72 students to a questionnaire about the feedback and interviews with 9 students. Responses from two groups were compared. One group (Group A) comprised students born in Australia or another English-speaking country and those born in non-English speaking countries but who had been residents in Australia for over seven years. The other group (Group B) comprised students born in non-English speaking countries and who had been resident in Australia for less than seven years. The students from both groups were most interested in specific comments on content matters and only half were interested in comments on written expression. Students from Group B were more likely than Group A students to find teacher comments useful for subsequent assignment writing. The responses from all students indicate that although they found teacher comments useful, they were not necessarily totally satisfied with the nature of the feedback.