Are we Dialogical or Sociomaterial in Our Written Corrective Feedback? A Reflection by Two Academic Writing Instructors

Authors

Daron B. Loo, National University of SingaporeFollow
Rowland Anthony Imperial, University of OxfordFollow

Abstract

Despite the growing movement to embrace sociomaterial approaches to feedback practices (e.g. Gravett, 2020), dialogicity remains the prominent and dominant approach, especially in the teaching of introductory or compulsory writing courses at the tertiary level. To examine this in our own practice, we reflected on and compared our written corrective feedback (WCF) provided to our students. Based on our WCF practices, we contend that feedback practices may range from dialogic to sociomaterial. The former aims to ensure students’ learning of expected academic skills or objectives of a module, while the latter promotes students’ pursuit of content knowledge. These observations are noteworthy for other higher education instructors, whether subject experts or academic literacy instructors. In particular, we recommend that instructors need to carefully identify temporal and spatial contexts where either or both dialogic and sociomaterial feedback practices can be utilized to enhance students’ learning experiences.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Loo, Daron B. and Imperial, Rowland Anthony (2022) "Are we Dialogical or Sociomaterial in Our Written Corrective Feedback? A Reflection by Two Academic Writing Instructors," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 16: No. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2022.160202