Does your feedback
feed forward?
Eddy White
JALT 2008
Tokyo Woman’s International Conference
on Language Teaching/Learning
Christian University Tokyo, Japan

2
Feedback on law student essay
“Nonsense, rubbish,
disastrous! This
leads nowhere. It is
only your minimal
knowledge that
prevents me from
giving you an F”.
(in Raaheim, 2006)

3
Targets
• Feedback
background
• My feedback
research
• Your
feedback
practices

4
Targets
Feedback
background

5
What is feedback? (Wiggins, 2004)
• Feedback is information
about what was and was
not accomplished, given
a specific goal.

6
Feedback: summative vs formative
• Summative • Formative feedback -
feedback is a response to student work,
summary of students
final output or while it is in progress
performance, • - identifies strong and weak
includes a grade or aspects of performance,
score gives suggestions for
improvement
• It may help shape the
next performance or • - plays a part in ‘forming’ or
process, but it is too shaping student response to
late to play a part on the task being worked on
the task being • - aims to draw out students’
evaluated
best possible performance

7
Targets
Your
feedback
practices

8
Some key feedback questions
1. What do we say to students about
their work?
2. How do we say it?
3. Do they take any notice?
4. How much does it help their learning
payoff?
5. How well does it relate to students’
evidence of achievement of the
intended learning outcomes?
6. How efficient is it for us?

9
Assessment methods in your courses?

10
What
formative
feedback
practices
do you use
in your
courses?

11
discussion questions
1. What feedback practices do you
find to be effective in your
courses (i.e. that promote student
learning)?
2. What feedback-related problems
do you experience in the courses
that you teach?

12
Targets
Feedback
background

13
Feedback: student dissatisfaction

14
Feedback: Student dissatisfaction
• The literature shows students are
dissatisfied with feedback in terms of:
1. Lacking specific advice to improve
2. Being difficult to interpret
3. Having a negative impact on self-
perception and confidence
(Carless, 2006)

15
Quality feedback

16
Quality feedbacK:4 Criteria
• 1. It must be timely
• 2. It must be specific
• 3. It must be understandable to
the receiver
• 4. It must allow the student to act
on the feedback (refine, revise,
practice and retry)
(Wiggins, 1997)

• Feedback
is like fish,
it goes off
after a
week.

18
Sadler (1989)
• Sadler
identified three
conditions
necessary for
students to
benefit from
feedback.

19
To benefit from feedback
students must:
1. Possess a concept of the goal/standard or
reference level being aimed for
2. Compare the actual (or current) level of
performance with that goal or standard
3. Engage in appropriate action which leads
to some closure of the gap
(Sadler, 1989)

20
The power of feedback (Sadler,1989)
It is closing the gap between
where the students are and
where they are aiming to be
that leads to the power of
feedback.

21
Feedforward
• Providing useful information
to both the teacher and the
student that will help them
recognize where gaps in
student learning are and use
that data to move forward with
the intent of closing the gaps.

22
Feedforward
• -feedback that is “forward-
looking so that it can improve
students’ learning and enhance
their future performance on
assessed tasks.”
How Assessment Supports Learning, Carless et al. (2006,)

23

24
3 major feedback questions
1. Where am I going? (the goals) =
feedup
2. How am I going? = feedback
3. Where to next? = feedforward
(Hattie and Timperley, 2007)

25
(Hattie and Timperley, 2007)

26
Focus on Formative Feedback
(Shute, 2008), Review of Educational Research
• “The premise underlying most of
the research conducted in this
area is that good feedback can
significantly improve learning
processes and outcomes, if
delivered correctly”.

Feedback which supports learning
1. Is sufficient (in frequency; detail)
2. Is provided quickly enough to be useful
3. Focuses on learning rather than on marks
4. Is linked to assessment criteria/expected
outcomes
5. Makes sense to students
6. Is received by students and attended to
7. Is acted upon to improve performance

29
Targets
My
feedback
research

30
Teacher
written
feedback on
student
essays

31
Tokyo Woman’s Christian University

32
Junior
Composition
- third-year
Academic
Writing class

33
Junior Composition class
essay cycle

34

35
essay topic:
slang

36
Extract of essay first draft with teacher feedback (blue)
essay topic: slang

37
Feedback end sheet
- attached to the
first essay draft
- uses same
criteria as the
summative
assessment for the
final draft
- a writing guide
for students
- a teaching tool

38
research focus
Does the feedback
feed forward?
Students’ response
to teacher feedback

39
feedback intervention (FI)
• Actions taken by an external
agent to provide information
regarding some aspect of one’s
task performance.
(Kluger & DeNisi, 1996)

40
First draft Final draft

41
first draft (thesis statement)
final draft

42
successful revisions (closing gaps)

43
unsuccessful revisions (open gaps)

44
Reasons for unsuccessful revisions?
• Studies of second language writing show
that ESL students are willing to follow
closely the feedback provided by teachers,
but such commentary “had the potential of
miscommunicating and of being
misunderstood.” (Lee & Schallert, 2008)
• “Students need to have both the ‘will’
and the ‘skill’ to be successful in
classrooms.” (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990)

45
My research
concludes . . .

46
• Most revisions linked to the
feedback provided did lead to
text improvement in final drafts
(‘closing the gaps’)
• Supports empirical research
that teacher feedback in
multiple-draft classrooms does
lead to improved student writing

47
Conclusion

48
We learn faster, and much
more effectively, when we
have a clear sense of how well
we are doing and what we
might need to do in order to
improve.
(Carless, 2006)

49
Two questions for teachers to
consider . . .

50
• How well are
you doing with
the feedback you
provide to
students?
• Does your
feedback feed
forward?

51
Feedforward

52
• Thank you
for your time
and attention

53
References
• Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher
Education, 31(2), 219-223.
• Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004-05). Conditions under which assessment supports learning.
Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1, 3-29.
• Hattie, J., & Timperly, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational
Research, 77(1), 81-112.
• Kluger, A. N., & DeNisi, A. (1996). The effects of feedback interventions on perfor-
• mance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback interven-
• tion theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119(2), 254–284.
• Lee, G. & Schallert, D. (2008). Meeting in the margins: Effects of the teacher student
relationship on revision processes of EFL college students taking a composition course.
Journal of Second Language Writing, 17, 165-182.
• Pintrich, P.R., & DeGroot, E.V. (1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning
components of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82,
33-40.
• Raaheim, A. (2006). Do students profit from feedback? Seminar.net, Vol. 2, Issue 2
• Sadler, R. (1989). Formative Assessment and the Design of Instructional Systems.
Instructional Science,18, 119-144.
• Shute, V. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78(1),
153-189.
• Wiggins, G. (1997). Feedback: How learning occurs. In: E. E. Chaffee (Ed.), Assessing
impact: Evidence and action (pp. 31–39). Washington, DC: American Association for
Higher Education.
• Wiggins, G. (2004) . Assessment as Feedback. New Horizons for Learning,
http::www.newhorizons.org.