Feedback 1 What is Feedback Introduction Discuss in

Feedback 1 What is Feedback?

Introduction Discuss in groups of three: • How do you define feedback? • What sorts of things are involved? • Give an example

Four Profiles • Still in groups, look at the profile of the learner you have been given • Discuss your impressions • How often do you know this much about learners in your classes? Refer to the document Four Profiles and associated examples

Work Submitted • Read through the descriptions of the work learners have been asked to complete • Pick one to consider as an example or draft one of your own Refer to the document Four Profiles and associated examples

Sample Feedback • Read through the sample feedback responses • Pick one that you would use in response to: – good work by your profiled learner – indifferent work by your profiled learner – poor work by your profiled learner • Alternative: draft your own response in each case • Document your thinking Refer to the document Four Profiles and associated examples

Reactions • Imagine how the profiled learner might respond to each of the comments • Why did the learner react in this way? Refer to the document Four Profiles and associated examples

Evaluating the Sample Feedback • Was it good feedback for them? Why (not)? • How often is this feedback clearly useful advice that the learner will accept easily and use to improve future work? • Redraft or suggest an alternative form for the feedback Refer to the document Four Profiles and associated examples

What is Feedback? Catch-all term Highlights factors that performer may not be aware of Taps into emotional response and intellectual understanding Done inappropriately – demotivating and detrimental to progress Should: – move learning on – cause thinking – provide guidance on how to improve – be acted upon • An essential feature of feedback: it is intended to bring about change. If there’s nothing in place to bring about change in response to an instance of feedback, it’s not really working as feedback. • • •

The Power of Feedback • Feedback is potentially powerful • But: it can be powerfully good or powerfully bad • It’s seldom clear beforehand how feedback will be received: will it be a help or a turn-off?

Research on the Power of Feedback John Hattie Visible Learning (2008) • Large effect size (measuring influence on learning) Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Learning (1998) • Arguments for research-informed practice and for assessment for learning Educational Endowment Foundation Toolkit • educationendowmentfoundation. org. uk • Eight months’ worth of additional progress when implemented successfully

Novices and Experts • Most research evidence from higher education studies (but applicable to school settings) • Novices need encouragement, experts need critique: – in early stages of learning, informal feedback on successful performance is better – later, learners developing independence want information on how to achieve greater success – don't go for written comments pointing out mistakes straight away

Feedback Continuum Early examples of feedback address performance issues (suggest corrections) – task level Low confidence, not used to controlling outcomes, impulsive 1. Build familiarity with concepts and techniques 2. Advise on interpreting reasons for success and failure 3. Mistakes an expected part of making progress 4. Accept errors: no one always right first time 5. Use teacher’s error detection (supportive coach) 6. Internalising to detect errors as well as teacher can High confidence, increasing agency, experienced at self-regulating Late examples of feedback address learning issues (advise on strategies and techniques) – self-regulation level

Feedback Loop: Engineering • a desired state (temperature setting) • measurement of current state (thermometer) • compare measurements with desired state (thermostat) • mechanism to effect change (boiler) Adapted from Dylan Wiliam’s Embedded Formative Assessment (2012)

Feedback Loop: Education • a desired state (progress in learning) • measurement of current state (assessment) • compare measurements with desired state (pitch of task) • mechanism to effect change (teaching and learning)

How Does Feedback Work? • Feedback is a specific instance of communication • It’s about how you talk to people • Supplying the right sort of feedback means higher likelihood that the learner will succeed • Tell them how to improve their performance • The important bit is what learners do with the feedback

Successful Feedback Show someone how to do something Help them over their early mistakes Eventually they’ll know how to do it This is a picture of what teaching is No recipe for successful feedback Feedback is effective when the teacher plans carefully how and when to provide feedback, and the sort of feedback they should provide • Feedback: a collection of principles to reflect on, internalise and practise • • •

Implications for Pedagogy The teacher is the first recipient of feedback • Works with and observes the class • Recognises quickly if understood or not • Uses activities that show learning: – asking questions – using test scores, essays etc. • Infers learning from performances, checking for mimicking, shallow learning etc.