Effective feedback

Helping students to course-correct

Hey šŸ‘‹

Howā€™s tricks? Have you been exit ticketing? This week, weā€™re wrapping up our series on responsive teaching with a snack on effective feedback. Letā€™s goā€¦

Big idea šŸ‰

Responsive teaching isnā€™t just about helping teachers to course-correctā€”it's also about helping students to course correct. Which is why giving students feedback can be such a powerful strategy for learning.

Feedback is simply any process where students get information on their thinking or performance. However, not all kinds of feedback lead to improved learningā€”some can even be detrimental. In general, we can increase the chances that feedback is effective by ensuring it is:

  • Objective Emphasise subject knowledge or approaches to learning, rather than casting vague judgements on students themselves. ā€œThere are no capital letters at the start of these sentencesā€ rather than ā€œyou must try harder Alexaā€.

  • Constructive Donā€™t just tell students how they did on a taskā€”help them understand how they can do better in future tasks. ā€œThere are no capital letters at the start of these sentences. Next time, go back and check at the same time youā€™re sweeping for full stops.ā€

  • Manageable If we give too much feedback at any one time, it can easily be disregarded. For greatest impact, itā€™s best to focus on the smallest things that will make the biggest difference to future efforts.

Providing feedback isnā€™t enough by itself. We also need to ensure students have opportunities to put it into practiceā€”such as by reworking their original task or by applying their refined understanding to new questions.

ā€œWe are fond of saying practice makes perfect... but it is more accurate to say that practice makes permanent.ā€

ā€” Doug Lemov

And finally, when we give feedback can also influence student learning. The research on this aspect is too inconclusive to be highly confident in any particular approach, but in general:

  • For more corrective feedback (where weā€™re helping a student to see if theyā€™re right or wrong), sooner is better.

  • For more developmental feedback (where weā€™re helping a student to understand how they might change their approach), introducing a delay can sometimes be beneficial.

(The reasons why delaying can work are because (A) it can be hard for students to ā€˜step backā€™ in the moment, and (B) introducing a delay can exploit retrieval effects)

Note ā†’ Feedback doesnā€™t always have to come from the teacher. It can come from a textbook, some software, a peer, or even the student themselves. However, the feedback must be accurate, and all the above principles still apply.

Caveat ā†’ The power of feedback is heavily dependent on having a classroom culture where students feel it is safe to make (and be open about) mistakes. If someone feels they will be ridiculed, they will clam up, bury their errors, and likely resist any feedback that comes their way.

Summary

ā€¢ Giving students feedback can help them course-correct (and so enhance) their learning.

ā€¢ Not all feedback improves learning. Effective feedback tends to be objective, constructive, and manageable.

ā€¢ The timing of our feedback and the culture in which we offer it also have an impact on how things play out.

Challenge ā†’ How do you approach feedback in your classroom? Are there ways it could be even more objective, constructive, and manageable?

Little links šŸ„•

As always, if you ever have any feedback for me, do send it over :)

Peps šŸ‘Š

PS. Iā€™m super pumped to announce that Snacks PROā€”an upgrade for those of you keen to take your evidence informed journey to the next levelā€”will be dropping this weekend šŸ˜±šŸš€šŸ„³