Effective+feedback

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© New Zealand Ministry of Education 2009 - copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector.
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Effective Feedback

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You can use this presentation to:
• update, review and/or reflect on the effectiveness of
feedback in your classroom/s
• support an in-depth professional learning programme in
your school.
In this presentation you can:
• clarify the purpose and value of effective feedback to
learners
• identify strategies that improve the quality of feedback to
learners, through suggested readings and classroom
activities.

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Effective feedback
For feedback to be effective for students, they need
the following:
• an understanding of the desired goal
• evidence about their present position in
relation to that goal
• guidance on the way to close the gap between the
two

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John Hattie: Visible Learning (2009)
“To be effective, feedback needs to be clear,
purposeful, meaningful and compatible with students’
prior knowledge, and to provide logical connections.”
“If feedback is directed at the right level, it can assist
students to comprehend, engage, or develop
effective strategies to process the information
intended to be learnt.”
“Thus, when feedback is combined with effective
instruction in classrooms, it can be very powerful in
enhancing learning.”

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Effective feedback should…
• focus on what is being learnt (learning intention) and
how students should go about it (success criteria)
• occur as the students are doing the learning
• provide information on how and why the student has or
has not met the criteria
• provide strategies to help the student to improve

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A typology of feedback
In 1996 Pat Tunstall and Caroline Gipps developed a
typology of teacher feedback by recording and classifying
the feedback given by teachers to their students. They
classified feedback as either:
evaluative – involving a value judgment
or
descriptive – describing what the student said or did, and
providing guidance for improvement

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Evaluative feedback
Evaluative feedback involves a judgment by the teacher
based on implicit or explicit norms.
Evaluative feedback may take the form of:
Approval: “That’s a good essay.” “You’ve done well.”
Disapproval: “That’s not good enough.”
Reward: Gold stars
Punishment: “Write it out again.”

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Descriptive feedback
Descriptive feedback:
• focuses on identified learning outcomes and makes
specific reference to the student’s achievement.
• looks towards improvement.
An example of descriptive feedback:
“That’s a good introduction because you have covered
the main points we discussed at the beginning. Now …
which points do you think you should expand on?”

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An emphasis on evaluative feedback can affect
how students feel about themselves.
It can make the good students feel
better (and possibly complacent)
and the less able students
feel worse (and the more sure
that they will never be able to
succeed.)

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What types of feedback do you give?
Most teacher feedback interactions observed by
Tunstall and Gipps were at the evaluative end of the
continuum.
Keep the typology in mind when giving feedback to
students. Descriptive feedback is focused on
improvement.
You could have a colleague spend time in your
classroom and write down the types of feedback you
give.

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How we provide suggestions for
improvement is critical in ‘closing the
gap’ for students.
Improvement is more likely if we use the kind of
feedback prompt that best meets the need of
the student.

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Types of descriptive feedback prompt
Clarke (2003) suggests three types of prompts for
providing feedback, dependent on the needs of the
student:
1. Reminder prompt
2. Scaffold prompt
3. Example prompt
Remember, prompts need to be focused around the
learning intention of the task.

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Page 13
• Reminder prompts:
How could you make the description of the character more
striking?
Remember the rule about circles we talked about?
• Scaffold prompts:
Why don’t you try using a simile to describe how he eats?
What about the rule which says that the area of a circle is ∏r²?
• Example prompts:
Why don’t you use a simile to describe your character? Try
‘He gulped down his food like a pelican’.
Calculate using ∏r². Multiply 27 x 27 then …

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Students as active participants in the learning
Feedback conversations are most effective when initiated
by the learner.
Teacher and student should make the decision about the
level of support which is needed.
Not enough, and the student is still in the dark, and
doesn’t know how to improve. Too much and the student
doesn’t have to try.
Ask the student what support he/she needs:
“Is that enough or do you need an example?”

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Check the adequacy of the feedback
• “Do you know what to do next?”
• “Is that enough help?”
• “What will you do if you get stuck again?”

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Written feedback
When feedback is given in writing, some students:
• have difficulty understanding the points the teacher is
trying to make
• are unable to read the teacher’s writing
• can’t process the feedback and understand what to
do next.
Asking a student to tell you what they think you are
trying to say to them is the best way to check this out.

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Page 17
Marks versus comments
Findings from research showed that:
• Students given only marks made no gain from the first
to the second lesson.
• Students given only comments scored on average 30%
higher.
• Giving marks alongside comments cancelled the
beneficial effects of the comments.
Research conclusion:
If you are going to grade or mark a piece of work, you are
wasting your time writing careful diagnostic comments.

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Clarke (2001)
Findings from Clarke's research:
Teachers give:
• too many criteria making it very difficult for specific
feedback to be given
• too much information in their marking which students
find overwhelming and difficult to take in.
Clarke suggests that:
when giving written feedback, teachers highlight two or
three successes in the student’s work and one area
where some improvement is necessary.

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Some practical strategies for effective
formative feedback to try out in the
classroom
(Adapted from Mike Gershon’s Assessment for Learning Tools)

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Feedback for improvement
Comments on students’ work
should act as guidance
showing how the student can
improve.
Develop this by asking
students to write in the same
way when peer assessing
work.

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Page 21
Comment-only marking
Comment-only marking
provides students with a focus
for progression instead of a
reward or punishment for their
ego (as a grade does).
Comments should make it
clear how the student can
improve.
Plan activities and work with
feedback in mind – let the
design assist the process.

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Page 22
Self assessment
Reinforce the focus on
redrafting and comment-only
marking by insisting on seeing
evidence of student self
assessment on their work
before you look at it. (You’ll
have to allow time for this).

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Feedback Sandwich
Feedback can be delivered in different ways. Two
examples of feedback ‘sandwiches’ are –
1. Positive comment
Constructive criticism with
explanation of how to improve
Positive comment
2. Contextual statement – I liked….because….
Now/Next time…
Interactive statement e.g. a question based on the work

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Allow students time to act on feedback
Use lesson time to redraft work.
This allows students time to
focus on the feedback for
improvement they have been
given.
It also reinforces the value of
the feedback and allows them to
work at it in a supportive
environment.

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Page 25
Feedback follow-up
- Create time in the lesson to
talk to individual students.
- Have a written dialogue in
the students’ book.
- Use a comment tracker or
target sheet to formalise the
dialogue in a workbook.

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Page 26
Learning Journal
Create a learning journal in
which students can reflect
on and review their
learning. It could include
plenary activities, a target
setting chart, aims and
goals etc.

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Feedback… in summary
Effective feedback to learners:
• is best initiated by the learner
• focuses on the learning intention of the task
• occurs as the students are doing the learning
• provides information on how and why the student
understands and misunderstands
• provides strategies to help the student to improve
• assists the student to understand the goals of the
learning.

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Page 28
Feedback in your school
List the ways in which teachers in your school provide
feedback to students about their learning.
Which of the ways help students improve their learning?
Which ways are evaluative and which are descriptive?
(Tunstall & Gipps research)
What is the role of students in the feedback process? How
can this be enhanced?

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Page 29
References and readings
Absolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom. Auckland: Hodder Education
Clarke, S. (2001). Unlocking formative assessment: Practical strategies for
enhancing pupils’ learning in the primary classroom. London: Hodder and
Stoughton.
Clarke, S. (2003). Enriching Feedback in the primary classroom. London:
Hodder and Stoughton.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning. London and New York: Routledge
Tunstall, P., & Gipps, C. (1996). Teacher feedback to young children in
formative assessment: A typology. British Educational Research Journal, 22
(4).
Wiliam, D. (1999). Formative Assessment in Mathematics. The Mathematical
Association. Equals. Summer Volume 5, Number 2.

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