Overall results
When students were asked to reflect on the mark awarded compared to their expectations of the mark they felt they should have received, 40% students agreed that the mark was as they expected; 44% said it was lower than expected and just 16% felt that it had exceeded their expectations (Fig.1).
In the case of the feedback given, 50% of students reported their initial agreement with the comments made. However, following reflection, 88% of students noted that the feedback was accurate and had enhanced their understanding of what was required by the essay title as well as the subject matter under consideration.
Over 90% students said that the most useful comments made were those directing them towards using the "aetiology of Parkinson's Disease and late onset polio symptoms as models of a neurological time-bomb", "exploring the effect of ecstasy on dopamine as well as serotonin" and giving a detailed account of key synthetic enzymes. Only one student completely disagreed with the feedback noting that the "exercise was ridiculous at this level [i.e. final year of the degree]", the "assessor was biased" and that "I wished that I had read all the comments relating to this essay ASAP so that I could have made a complaint"!
Most of the subsequent student action plans noted the need to understand all the words and the meaning of the title overall. The majority of students noted that the key word in the title was "time-bomb" and reported that they had chosen to ignore it when compiling the original essay and consequently had missed the required emphasis. Others noted that as a result of this exercise they would "spend more time contemplating weaknesses in my writing", "be aware of when it is important to expand upon an idea", have a more open mind "when reading the background material", "would not rush into answering the question without considering other relevant views", "make points explicitly rather than just hinting at them".
Despite these encouraging comments, the students disliked having to perform a reflective assignment, considered it to be "inappropriate and unnecessary at final year level" as evidenced by responses given on an anonymous questionnaire. This attitude supports the work of Jackson (1995) who reported that level 3 students tended to only look at the grade rather than at the feedback. He also found that students like to see feedback to reassure them that their assignment has been marked fairly.
Although students agreed with the statement that they learned from feedback they were non-committal as to the value of having a reflective assignment. We found a higher level of learning occurring with the reflective assignment than with the essay component but this was not recognized by most students.
