Active co-constructive written feedback Promoting students' critical thinking in a higher education context

This study explores innovative ways of promoting students' critical thinking through active co-constructive written feedback. Data were collected through naturalistic non-participant classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with the teacher and five students involved in an innovative academic practice in an undergraduate Biology course. Results show that the written feedback provided in this case increased opportunities for students to search for further information, to negotiate and take decisions within their group, to co-construct their own feedback before sending their final critical analyses to the teacher. Their group work also allowed them to develop critical thinking, collaboration and argumentation. Our study adds two specific innovative contributions to these discussions, to (i) invoke the active engagement of students in the provision of 'co-constructed' feedback within their undergraduate studies, and (ii) to focus specifically on developing students' critical thinking.