Feedback

Test yourself

Feedback

Feedback is the information we give pupils once they have completed an assessment in order to answer these questions.

Importance of feedback

For Hattie and Timperley, 2007, feedback is one of the most critical influences on student learning.
It helps to identify how students are going relative to where they need to go and to propose steps as to how to take them there.
For the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), feedback is a high impact tool for very low cost, which is based on moderate evidence.

Research on feedback

According to the report made by the EEF in 2016, there is a lack of robust, large scale studies investigating the impact of feedback.
- Most existing research is short term and focused on specific types of participants.
Meta-analyses done by Bargert-Drowns (1991) and DeNisi (1996) suggested that feedback have very little positive impact on students' work.

Research on feedback

This is because feedback given by teachers is usually ambiguous, negative, pupil focused, late and unclear.
To be effective, feedback needs to be timely, task-focused, specific and useful to students' learning.
For Hattie and Timperley (2007), feedback can be very powerful when combined with effective instruction in the classroom.
- These authors conclude that, in general, instruction is more effective than feedback.

Pupils using feedback

Jackson and Marks (2016) report that teachers may spend hours marking, writing comments, correcting grammar and spelling. But, sometimes students will not even read that feedback and the class will move on to the next piece of work.
For feedback to be useful, pupils need to engage with it. There needs to be time set aside to enable students to consider and respond to marking.
Wiliam (2014): teachers must be efficient in their comments and plan for pupils to use feedback effectively.

DIRT

Koen et al. (2012) recommend changing the term to "feed forward", to highlight the importance of students using feedback to move forward with their learning.
Beere (2010) came up with DIRT: Directed Improvement and Reflection Time. That is, teachers, allocate time for reflection and action on feedback as part of the assessment process.
However, Didau (2014) says that DIRT becomes "triple marking", with teachers spending even more time reading and marking pupils' work.

Types of Feedback

Feedback can be of several types, each with advantages and disadvantages.

Marks, grades, levels

Grading a student's work is a way to measure what they have achieved and to compare with previous performance or with other students. It can motivate learners to improve.
However, research by Butler (1988) and Pulfrey et al. (2011) suggest that using only grades can undermine pupil interest, performance, and motivation.
- These effects vary depending on students' gender, attainment and other variables.

Marks, grades, levels cont...

For Lipnivich and Smith (2009), detailed feedback, without grade or praise, can be very effective.
For Jackson and Marks (2016), replacing grades for comments can be more motivating for students.
Brookhart et al. (2016) showed that grades can be unreliable if teachers are biased, have personal feelings towards a student, or even if the criteria of the grade is not clear.

Comment feedback

According to Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), the best type of comments are those that clearly and specifically outline what needs to be done to improve the work and how to do so.
Teachers can give feedback specifically on a pupil's work, orally to a specific student, or as whole class feedback.
- Whole class feedback is where a teacher goes through common errors/misconceptions as a class. Pupils respond by improving their work based on this feedback.

Model answers

Giving model answers helps show students how to produce a good answer on their own.
Hauxham (2007) showed that students prefer a mix of personal feedback and model answers. However, their performance is better when only model answers are used as feedback.
Model answers can be given as whole class feedback by using technology, such as taking a picture of an exemplar piece of work and projecting it to the class.

1Introduction to Assessment

1.1Definitions

1.1.1Validity & Reliability

1.2Types of Assessments

1.2.1Summative & Formative Assessments

2Feedback

2.1Feedback

2.1.1Feedback

3Assessment Methods

3.1Assessment Methods

3.1.1Research on Assessments

3.1.2Rubrics & Comparative Judgment

3.1.3MCQs & Self-Assessment

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