Investigating Synchronous & Asynchronous Feedback in an Elementary School Maker Education Classroom

ABSTRACT

Providing and receiving feedback is a crucial aspect of K-12 education, and is foundational to building a strong student-educator relationship in project-based learning. Previous research has highlighted the importance of student documentation, thus we study the implementation of a mobile application prototype (CoCreator App) that encourages student documentation along with features for asynchronous educator feedback. We observed and analyzed how educators provided synchronous feedback when conversing in-person with students. Our analysis indicates a variety of differences between synchronous and asynchronous feedback. Asynchronous feedback was typically used for praise and encouragement, but also offered additional opportunities for educators to notice student struggles that may not have been visible in class. Synchronous feedback was largely used to provide process-oriented feedback. Looking ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic prevails, we suggest practices and workflows for maker educators to consider as they provide both synchronous and asynchronous feedback in interdisciplinary (and potentially hybrid) learning environments. © ISLS.