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How can feedback dialogues stimulate students' reflective thinking? This study aims to investigate: (1) the effects of feedback dialogues between teachers and students on students' perceptions of teacher feedback and (2) the relation between features of feedback dialogues and students' thinking activities as part of reflective thinking. A quasi-experiment was carried out in which 72 secondary education students received written teacher feedback. Half of them had an additional feedback dialogue with their teacher. The latter group perceived teachers' feedback as more useful than the group without a dialogue. The feedback dialogues could be clustered in 2 groups that varied in the number of segments containing teacher and student interaction. The number of segments containing interaction was positively correlated with students' use of thinking activities.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether oral feedback by inspectors of the Dutch Inspectorate of Education is an adequate method to support the professional development of teachers in primary education. This study aims to examine the impact of short feedback training for inspectors (focused on effective feedback conversations) on feedback quality and on teachers ' feedback perception. In addition, it aims to study the relation between immediate perception and the delayed perception of that feedback. Design/methodology/approach – In an independent sample experimental design, 15 inspectors provided feedback to 40 teachers in primary education. Nine inspectors received short feedback training (the experimental group), while six others did not receive this training (the control group). Findings – The results indicate that feedback provided by trained inspectors can foster professional development of teachers in primary education and that short feedback training has added value. The quality of the feedback by inspectors was related to teachers ' immediate perception of the feedback and the delayed perception of the feedback. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of this study is the small group of inspectors and the limited number of feedback conversations they could provide. Further research could be aimed at examining the impact of feedback of trained inspectors on the professional development of underperforming teachers. Originality/value – This paper contributes to research that examines effective ways to use feedback conversations in workplace settings for the professional development of teachers.

This study investigated the effects of feedback providing improvement strategies and a reflection assignment on students’ writing motivation, process, and performance. Students in the experimental feedback condition (n = 41) received feedback including improvement strategies, whereas students in the control feedback condition (n = 41) received feedback without improvement strategies. Within each feedback condition, half of the students received a reflection assignment on feedback use and the revision (experimental reflection condition), while the other half received a reflection assignment on feedback perception (control reflection condition). Results indicated that in the experimental feedback condition writing performance gained from the control reflection assignment, while in the control feedback condition it gained from the experimental reflection assignment. Improvement strategies negatively predicted self-efficacy beliefs, especially when initial self-efficacy beliefs were low, and positively predicted planning/revising. Reflections on feedback use and the revision positively predicted mastery goal when mastery goal initially was low or moderate.

As assessment methods are changing, the way to determine their quality needs to be changed accordingly. This article argues for the use Competences Assessment Programs (CAPs), combinations of traditional tests and new assessment methods which involve both formative and summative assessments. To assist schools in evaluating their CAPs, a self-evaluation procedure was developed, based on 12 quality criteria for CAPs developed in earlier studies. A self-evaluation was chosen as it is increasingly used as an alternative to external evaluation. The CAP self-evaluation is carried out by a group of functionaries from the same school and comprises individual self-evaluations and a group interview. The CAP is rated on the 12 quality criteria and a piece of evidence is asked for to support these ratings. In this study, three functionaries from eight schools (N = 24) evaluated their CAP using the self-evaluation procedure. Results show that the group interview was very important as different perspectives on the CAP are assembled here into an overall picture of the CAP’s quality. Schools seem to use mainly personal experiences to support their ratings and need to be supported in the process of carrying out a self-evaluation.

A General Practitioner (GP) is no longer a loner, but a team player in either a group practice or a care centre. This change has led to a concomitant growth in curricular interest in skills essential for successful collaboration and for enhancing critical reflection towards colleagues' performance. Giving and receiving constructive feedback are examples of these skills. The aim of this study was to gain insight in the style and quality of feedback reports on consultation skills written by GPs-in-Training (GPiTs) and by their GP-trainers. Furthermore, the preferences of the GPiTs concerning feedback style were examined. Results show significant differences between GP-trainers and GPiTs in feedback style and quality. A ranking task indicated that GPiTs have a preference for reports characterised by a large number of reflective remarks. Questionnaire results indicate the added value of the use of peer feedback. Implications for the integration of peer feedback activities in the curriculum of GPiTs are discussed.

This study is directed towards an integration of intellectual ability, learning style, personality and achievement motivation as predictors of academic success in higher education. Correlational analyses partly confirmed and partly disconfirmed our expectations in a sample of 409 first-year psychology students. Consistent with the literature, intellectual ability and achievement motivation were associated positively with academic success. For the meaning directed, reproduction directed and application directed learning style, no positive association with academic success could be detected. The undirected learning style, however, appeared to be a consistent negative predictor. For the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), a consistent, positive association for conscientiousness with academic success was found. The very first examination at the university came out as the most important predictor for academic success, even after two and three years of study. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the literature and the policy of the Dutch Ministry of Education.

In his dissertation, Vermunt [Vermunt, J. D. H. M. (1992). Leerstijlen en sturen van leerprocessen in het hoger onderwijs. (Learning styles and guidance of learning processes in higher education) . Amsterdam/Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger] postulated four different learning styles: a meaning directed, a reproduction directed, an application directed and an undirected style. Aim of this project is to investigate the relation between these learning styles, the big five personality traits and achievement motivation. Subjects were about 900 university students. Extraversion correlated positively with the meaning directed, reproduction directed and application directed learning style. Conscientiousness was associated positively with the meaning, reproduction and application directed learning style, and negatively with the undirected learning style. Openness to experience correlated positively with the meaning and application directed learning style, and negatively with the undirected learning style. Besides, it was found that neuroticism correlated positively with the undirected learning style and negatively with the meaning and reproduction directed learning style. Agreeableness was associated positively with the reproduction and application directed learning style. Positive correlations were found for achievement motivation with the meaning, reproduction and the application directed learning style, and a negative one with the undirected learning style. Regression analyses confirmed these patterns. Although there was some systematic overlap for the four learning styles with personality variables and achievement motivation, the conclusion is that it certainly makes sense to measure these three groups of variables separately in educational settings.