Arab Educational Information Network

This quantitative study investigated Saudi female teachers’ and students’ understanding of the role and importance of feedback, the types of feedback Saudi teachers use and students' perceptions of each type using a rating scale questionnaire. The participants were 100 female Saudi undergraduate students and 20 teachers from one campus at King Abdulaziz University. The 100 students were recruited from three different levels (elementary, pre-intermediate- intermediate) based on a placement test conducted at the beginning of the year. The findings suggested that students value teachers' feedback more than feedback from their peers and that some types of teachers' feedback were preferred over others. Direct feedback, where teachers underline or circle the error and provide the correct word or structure is found to be the most effective type of feedback from both groups of participants. There was a variety of responses on what writing features are more important to receive feedback on; for instance, two groups of participants, elementary and intermediate level students, rated feedback on grammatical errors as the most helpful. However, for the pre-intermediate level, feedback on spelling errors came first. The results of this study suggest that teachers should vary their feedback practices and consider students' perspectives and needs. (Published Abstract)