feedback....ooops, I mean feedforward, it's the newish politically correct term for providing your students with guidance on past assignments and exams with a view to improving their future performances.
[Feedforward not feedback]
"Focusing on solutions, rather than mistakes, on the future, rather than the past, will enhance the self-image of business leaders and employees alike and propel them on the road to success."
Dr Marshall Goldsmith
In this blogpost, I'll refer to feedback as I think it is...feedback by hey call it feed up, feed down, feed sideways whatever you like. Now, let's get down to the gist of it all, what do we actually mean and does it really help our students?
To me this means valuing making mistakes, reflecting and learning from past experiences rather than classifying an experience as a failure. In my experience, girls are generally far less willing to take risks than boys and on the occasions where (usually) high achieving girls achieve at a level lower than they are used to their self esteem takes a real knocking which has a resultant effect on their learning in the classroom. More on how boys and girls learn another time...
So as teachers, what kind of environment and beliefs is conducive to providing feedback?
"A recognition of the profound influence that assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students. A belief that every child can improve. The establishment of a classroom culture that encourages reflection and interaction and the use of assessment for learning tools. The establishment of a safe, non-threatening, affective learning environment in which students see making mistakes as an integral part of learning. Active involvement of students in the learning process. The negotiation and use of learning criteria and goals. The tracking of individual student progress, through the criteria towards those goals"Well, one would hope that all of the above applies in every learning environment.
"Feedback is forward looking with a positive focus on next steps for improvement"
Sutton, R School-wide assessment, Improving teaching and learning.NZ Council for Educational Research (1998)
Ruth Butler’s research of 132 Year 7 (12 year old) students, cited in Black and Wiliam's article above suggests that assigning grades or marks:
l"is not conducive to learning,
l tends to undermine the motivation of weaker students
l encourages students to become more concerned with model answers or finding the right answers or trying to guess what the teacher wants rather than focusing on the learning process, their own ideas and how they can progress towards learning goals."
Butler’s research shows that:
and we thought we were doing a good job scrawling detailed (legible/illegible!?!?) comments on our students work!l"Students given only grades or marks made no gain from the first to the second lessonlStudents given only comments scored on average 30% higherlStudents given marks or grades in addition to comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments."
The following comments on evaluative and descriptive feedback are excerpts from a number of different sources which include "Feed Back…Feed Forward: Using Assessment to Boost Literacy Learning” by Anne Davies.
Feedback is generally classified into 3 groups: motivational, evaluative and descriptive.
Motivational Feedback is to make the learner feel good. I have found it particularly useful with lower ability students although irrespective of ability, I feel that a feedback session should always start with some Motivational feedback.
Clarke states that
Feedback that is intended to encourage and support the learner. —does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning. |
examples of motivational feedback are... “I like how you completed the assignment.” —“You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes." |
Evaluative Feedback (ego related)
The goal is to measure student achievement with a score or a grade. Students in general like to know their personal grade in terms of percentage, marks out of etc.. and others like an idea of the class median and mean to get an idea of their placing. Top placing particularly appeal (in general) to boys competitive nature.
| Feedback with performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings typically uses a single measurement —may compare students to each other —does not give students information about specific elements (knowledge, skills) they perform well —may encourage competition —sometimes linked to rewards vs. punishments —stifles learning —generally summative type of assessment —feedback that is intended to summarize student achievement. —does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning. |
examples of evaluative feedback are... That’s a good essay. You’ve done well. typically uses a single measurement 73% You’ve shown improvement You need to try harder performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings 8/10 checks on a checklist letter grades |
Descriptive feedback (task related)
The goal is to improve student achievement by telling the learner what steps to take in order to move forward in the learning process.
The goal is to improve student achievement by telling the learner what steps to take in order to move forward in the learning process.
Feedback that is specific about what is working and points out next steps in the learning describes features of work or performance —relates directly to learning targets and/or standards of quality using exemplars, rubrics and/or samples —points out strengths and gives specific information on how to improve —provides strategies for moving forward —promotes learning by increasing motivation —formative assessment |
examples of descriptive feedback are... "In your essay you have successfully covered the main points related to energy conservation. What could you add to the section on the water conservation to deepen your reader’s understanding of the issue?” “Most of your spelling is accurate. I found only two errors. See if you can find them.” “You used a lot of details as was shown in our samples. You mentioned seven different things you liked about dogs.” “Your map legend has all of the required key elements needed to identify the geographical landforms.” “You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes. You now need to divide this number by the total number of students to get the overall percentage of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes." |
Clarke states that
"Teachers give their students too many criteria making it very difficult for specific feedback to be given too much information in their marking which students find overwhelming and difficult to take in."
Clarke suggests that
"when giving written feedback that teachers highlight three successes in the student’s work and one area here some improvement is necessary."
Clarke: Feedback that fits, (2001)
"The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback. The simplest prescription for improving education must be ‘dollops of feedback."
Hattie, 1992
Here are some more suggestions on how to provide feedback to your students.
| PMI (plus, minus and interesting) 2 stars and a wish (Two "I really liked how you"... and one "I think you could improve your work by..." one-on-one personalised feedback discussion in class time while other students are occupied or outside of class time.insert track changes in Microsoft Word (tools, select track changes), type in comments, insert ticks (insert symbol, search for wingdings: tick), while you're there you might as well create a shortcut for future use eg CTRL t I have found track changes particularly useful for providing feedback to students on their attempts at longer "discussion" or "evaluate" style questions students to use a marking schedule to write comments on to their own work, then peer or teacher comments peered marking of assessments (provided that you are totally confident that students will be respectful of other students work, if not) try marking of fictitious persons answers teachers can post general class or individual feedback on a cyberwall with "stickies", I recommended Wallwisher for this. |
and finally here's some actual exam answers, which is a bit of a worry!
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