Feedback 4 Summary and Suggestions Feedback Works best

Feedback 4 Summary and Suggestions

Feedback • Works best as refinement to success rather than pointing out mistakes • Can use affect, process, and cognition to look for improvements • Will be coherent if learning intentions are clear • Parameters are set by success criteria

Feedback (cont. ) • Can only influence factors already within learner’s control to some degree • Must be in form recipient understands • Bridges between current performance and targeted performance • Provides correctives, advice, refinements, reminders, supplements and/or reassurance

Feedback (cont. ) • Requires response from learner • Must be given in time for learner to implement suggestions • Negative effects are tied to learner’s ego needs • Pick your moment • Know your learner

Feedback (cont. ) • • • Is a special instance of communication Comes first to teacher: seeing how things are going Follows after instruction Makes reflection productive Guides towards: – – – more fruitful lines of enquiry extension activities consolidation increasing challenge more independence

Points to Consider • Teachers think they’re providing more than they really are • Most comes from peers and is wrong • Used well, can make big differences • Praise doesn’t count • Not expensive to implement • Needs careful forethought • Is about communication • Is about how you talk to people

Things to Try Comparing performance with peers • Good work (success) gets just a tick, grade or score • Faulty work (errors) gets comments or red pen • Success means nothing extra to do (reward) • Failure means corrections to do (more work)

Things to Try (cont. ) Substitute annotation with +, = or • + means better than previous work • = means same as previous work • - means not as good as previous work

Things to Try (cont. ) Response to feedback is within learner’s control • + means they must do even more to keep getting + • = means they must do more to get + • - means they must improve their performance • Comparing performance with past performance emphasises what they can do to improve • Comparing performance with others’ moves improvement outside immediate control

Things to Try (cont. ) Don’t put or beside what’s right and wrong • Say instead: six of these are right, four are wrong, find which is which… Three questions • Mark three places in work where you want learner to reflect • At the end, ask a question for each reflection • Leave space for learner to respond

Things to Try (cont. ) To get learners to read comments, write them separately • Return work to group of three or four, along with separate comments • Ask group to match comments to corresponding work

Things to Try (cont. ) Don’t overwhelm with multiple suggestions • Focus on one or two features to be worked on • Less feedback more impact greater chance of improvement

Things to Try (cont. ) Use separate occasions for acknowledging success and suggesting improvements • ‘If you really want to grade work, don’t waste time writing feedback • If you’ve written feedback, don’t undermine yourself by slapping on a grade • If you really want to tell a student what went well, don’t then waste time on how to make it even better • Praise this work and give feedback for improvement on that. Don’t spoil it by doing both at once’ See http: //www. learningspy. co. uk/featured/what-does-feedback-look-like/

Things to Try (cont. ) Make proofreading the learner’s responsibility • Expect that work must be proofread – best if this is whole-school approach • Show what it means: rereading own work and finding common mistakes • Offer two stages of marking for older learners: – once to get suggestions – once for the mark that gets recorded • Offer option to choose feedback instead of mark

Things to Try (cont. ) Train classes in assessment standards you expect to see • If they can apply assessment criteria to themselves and each other, that reduces marking and makes peer assessment accessible and worthwhile • Point out standard mistakes that happen often • Display them as list • Learners must check they haven’t made any mistakes on list • Only then look at individual work

Things to Try (cont. ) Written or spoken feedback? • Doesn’t appear to matter which – as long as time for improvements afterwards • But – written feedback has time costs, so restrict it to fewer occasions and make these worthwhile

Things to Try (cont. ) Peer feedback • Train class in feedback at level of: – task – process – self-regulation • Use Gan’s graphic organiser • Customise questions to topic