Common Feedback Practices on Written Assignments Demonstrated by Faculties Teaching Educational Courses at the College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, from the Viewpoints of their Students Majoring in Arabic and English

Abstract

The study aims at revealing faculties' common feedback practices when providing comments on their students' written assignments, from the viewpoints of students of Arabic and English majors, College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University. To achieve its aim, a questionnaire consisting of )18( phrases was prepared. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a group of referees specializing in curricula and teaching methods. The questionnaire reliability is at )0.84( in the Cronbach’s alpha scale. The questionnaire was distributed to )137( male and female students in the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The overall results revealed that the faculties teaching educational courses practice feedback with an average degree; the general mean of which is (2.93) according to the five grades scale. Phrases-wise analysis showed that only two phrases obtained a )high( grade, )10( phrases obtained a )medium( grade and )6( phrases got a )low( grade. The results also revealed a significant statistical differences at the (course) level for the benefits of students undertaking (teaching methods 2), and at the level of specialization for the benefits of students undertaking English language. Statistically, there was no significant difference in results according to gender. The study recommends that faculties follow up the extent to which their students have benefited from the feedback, provide students with good feedback models previously used with their peers, conduct workshops for faculties about giving correct feedback to students, and reduce faculties’ administrative load.