FeedBack – developing the practice of feedback to enhance learning through arts Erasmus Project

Project Title

FeedBack – developing the practice of feedback to enhance learning through arts

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The document “Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes (COM(2012) 669 final)” supports the idea that the investment in education and training for skills development is essential to boost growth and competitiveness. At the same time it recognises that European education and training systems continue to fall short in providing the right skills for employability, and are not working adequately with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environment. These skills mismatches are a growing concern for European industry’s competitiveness.

The participation of all stakeholders, but most importantly of trainees/students, in rethinking and redesigning the Education is paramount, whether looking at the whole education and learning systems, or focusing at individual learning initiatives.

In this context, FEEDBACK stands out as a very capable tool to collect the valuable contributions of these stakeholders and to decisively and systematically contribute to the much-needed reflection about learning initiatives and programmes.
The practice of feedback during the learning cycle allowing trainees to have time to articulate and codify their experience through a task, an exercise that has a positive impact on both self-efficacy and task understanding, is of vital importance. Anseel, Lievens and Schollaert (2009) “show that when individuals are given feedback on their prior performance, they experience a higher self-efficacy and perform better in the future as result” (Making experience count, 2014).

How to conduct a proper Feedback exercise is not, however, a usual subject matter in our education systems and the way feedback is done and information collected does matter for the quality and value of the data collected. Thus, even when feedback is used to collect information with the purpose of improving a learning programme, it is seldom in a way that proves to be useful.

This is where the Project FEEDBACK is focused. The main goal of the project is to create an innovative digital learning resource about the practice of Feedback as a crucial part of the learning cycle, supported by an ARTS-BASED LEARNING approach and deployed through different methods and techniques.

The use of the arts-based approach brings particular advantages to the feedback exercise, as it refers to a way of working, knowing and perceiving that involves creative skills, capacities and capabilities that incorporate reflection, awareness, imagination, collaboration and adaptability (Darsø 2004; Gibb 2006; Turner2006). Thus, an artful approach brings also a refreshing take on feedback, capable of giving a new perspective in the way problems are looked at and solutions are found.

The FEEDBACK project sets the foundations to define a clearer model of feedback to enhance learning and therefore act as leverage for the design of new learning programmes.
The project offers a comprehensive view, sustained by a sound research activity based in the collection of primary and secondary data sources, which provided a clearer picture of the state of the art of feedback practices and proposes a model for the use of arts-based approaches in feedback, serving as a foundation to the development of a Digital Toolkit.
This Digital Toolkit is a OER available in the project’s website – www.thefeedbackproject.eu – which comprises nearly 40 activities, to collect feedback in a useful manner using art-based approaches, to consistently improve learning programmes.

Throughout the project, more than 90.000 people are estimated to have been reached at some level. The partnership held and participated in several events, published numerous articles, held a pilot testing and communicated with its target audiences through the project’s website and social media (FB and Twitter). During the pilot testing, over 1.000 users engaged with the learning contexts of the Digital Toolkit.

The project was a joint effort from 5 partners from 4 countries:
• Advancis Business Services Lda (Portugal): consultancy and certified training company in areas like education & Training and HR management.
• Politecnico di Milano (Italy): HEI established in 1863 in Milan and is one of the leading science and technology universities in Europe
• Inova Consultancy (UK): female-owned SME which specialises in providing consultancy services and project work in the field of gender and non-traditional fields and entrepreneurship.
• Regenerus (UK): registered charity and social enterprise whose aim is to support the regeneration of a community north of Liverpool.
• International School for Social and Business Studies (Slovenia): Independent, private higher education institution founded in 2006.

Project Website

http://www.thefeedbackproject.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 260717 Eur

Project Coordinator

ADVANCIS-BUSINESS SERVICES, LDA & Country: PT

Project Partners

• Mednarodna fakulteta za družbene in poslovne študije
• INOVA CONSULTANCY LTD
• SOUTH SEFTON DEVELOPMENT TRUST
• POLITECNICO DI MILANO