Feedback is tricky. The Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit suggests that interventions around feedback are some of the most effective things that we as teachers can do. They also note, however, that there are plenty of examples of feedback that actually lead to negative consequences.
It is not simply the case that more feedback is always better. We also need to keep in mind the government’s own review of workload and marking, which found that feedback had become an unworkable burden with a focus on the quantity of marking rather than the quality, and that it was often being done for an adult audience, to prove that feedback had been given, rather than for the pupil.
If feedback can be ineffective if done wrong, and inefficient if done too much, what can we do to make sure that it has an impact?
A good starting point is Dylan Wiliam’s point that too many teachers focus on the purpose of feedback as changing or improving the work, whereas the major purpose of feedback should be to improve the student.
How do we change the way we give feedback so that the focus is in the right place?
Here are a few things that I have found to be effective.
1. Put down the red pen
There are several problems with traditional written comments in books. They aren’t time-effective, there can be a lengthy time lag between pupils doing the work and receiving feedback and they encourage us to correct the work, not improve the pupil. I spent years writing detailed comments on work, instructing students to add a certain piece of missing information here or move an idea from one part to another. This would make this particular answer better but do nothing to help them answer a different question.
2. Show and tell
A more time-efficient, and effective, measure could be to show pupils an example of an excellent answer to the question, use a criteria to tell them why this piece of work is so good and then ask them to apply this to their own work to see how it could be improved. This has the advantage of encouraging self-regulation, whereby they get familiar with the process of reviewing their own work and making improvements.
3. It’s good to talk
As I mentioned, a problem with written marking is that there is a delay between work being done, it being marked and then the feedback being seen and hopefully acted on. This gives a lot of time for errors to become embedded. If you know that certain errors are likely then it makes more sense to pick up on them as the work is being completed and talk to students about it there and then.
4. Review it
It can also be useful to sit and talk to pupils over time about the work they have done, rather than writing comments on it. This allows you to look at how they are progressing in your subject rather than trying to make an inference from each individual piece. I try to make the time to do this as the rest of the class are quietly working on something and may only manage to speak to a couple of pupils in a lesson, but it means that I can speak to everyone a few times over the year. This also helps to show the value you place in their work.
5. Respond to it
We might be better off seeing feedback as “responsive teaching”. Every time we stop the class to re-explain something, we are using feedback. If we read out an excellent answer from one pupil to the rest of the class, we are providing feedback. If, during questioning, we realise that the class have misunderstood something and then change our plan to teach this instead, we are using feedback. It is hard to imagine a successful lesson where feedback isn’t playing a part.
Mark Enser is head of geography at Heathfield Community College in East Sussex. He blogs at Teachreal.wordpress.com. Find him on Twitter @EnserMark
