Effective feedback for written submissions 

What are your biggest frustrations about providing feedback?

GOALS FOR TODAY

• Answer the “big questions”• Explore the hallmarks of effective feedback• Reflect on current feedback practices• Consider various (different?) ways of

providing effective feedback• Enjoy the opportunity for professional

learning and dialogue

How come cartoon characters never change their clothes?

THIS WORKSHOP AIMS TO ANSWER BIG / IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

For example:

If you put a chameleon in a room full of mirrors, what colour would it turn?

Why is it that when we know the batteries in a remote are dead, we push the buttons harder?

Or perhaps …

Are we maximising the feedback we are giving our students?

Are we using the time we take to provide feedback effectively?At the end of the day who is doing the more work?

The person providing the feedback is growing the most dendrites

Premises

• We work hard • We are time poor• The more time we can save marking – the

more time we have to prepare meaningful & effective lessons

• Feedback is important!

Hattie’s metaanalyses & influences on Achievement

RANK THESE 12 EFFECTSOpen vs. traditional classes

Video/Audio-visual methods Cooperative learningIndividualised instruction Mentoring Shifting schools

Homework Student-teacher relationships

Feedback Acceleration Teachers challenging students Reading Recovery

Activity:

ANSWERS: Acceleration .88 (1)

Feedback .73 (2)

Student-teacher relationships .72 (3)

Teachers challenging students .64 (4)

Reading Recovery .50 (5)

Cooperative learning .41 (6)

Homework .29 (7)

Video/Audio-Visual Methods .22 (8)

Individualised instruction .22 (9)

Mentoring .15 (10)

Open vs. traditional classes .01 (11)

Shifting schools -.34 (12)

HOWEVER

• Did you know feedback can have negative impacts?

• Indeed, Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative:

Dylan Wiliam

Feedback has complex effects

One well known study:• 264 low and high ability grade 6 students in 12 classes in 4 schools;

analysis of 132 students at top and bottom of each class• Same teaching, same aims, same teachers, same classwork• Three kinds of feedback: scores, comments, scores+comments

[Butler(1988) Br. J. Educ. Psychol., 58 1-14]

Achievement Attitude

Scores no gain High scorers : positiveLow scorers: negative

Comments 30% gain High scorers : positiveLow scorers : positive

[Butler(1988) Br. J. Educ. Psychol., 58 1-14]

Responses

What do you think happened for the students given both scores and comments?

A. Gain: 30%; Attitude: all positiveB. Gain: 30%; Attitude: high scorers positive, low

scorers negativeC. Gain: 0%; Attitude: all positiveD. Gain: 0%; Attitude: high scorers positive, low scorers

negativeE. Something else

Achievement Attitude

Scores no gain High scorers : positiveLow scorers: negative

Comments 30% gain High scorers : positiveLow scorers : positive

Effective feedback needs to move people forward!

Getting feedback right is hard

Response type Feedback indicates performance…

exceeds goal falls short of goal

Change behavior Exert less effort Increase effort

Change goal Increase aspiration Reduce aspiration

Abandon goal Decide goal is too easy Decide goal is too hard

Reject feedback Feedback is ignored Feedback is ignored

FEEDBACK‘the student makes an emotional investment in an assignment and expects some “return” on that investment’

- Higgins et al 2001, p272

“It’s not giving the assessments [that is important]; it’s about doing something with the results.”

- Douglas Reeves (2005)

• What do we currently say about student work?

• How do we say it?

• How much notice do they take?

• How much does this feedback help them to actually learn?

• How well does this feedback relate to students’ evidence of achievement of the intended learning outcomes?

• How efficient is it for us?

• What do you find to be effective?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• How do we stop students from seeing feedback as little more than editing?

• How do we give students a clear message about what they must do to improve future work?

• In some cases students don't read or take the advice that is given (and are not required to do so). How might we require them to do anything with this feedback?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CTD

Feedback that moves learning on

• Key idea: feedback should• cause thinking• provide guidance on how to improve

• Comment-only grading• Focused grading• Explicit reference to mark-schemes and scoring guides

Queries

• When we mark do we give mixed messages?• Dilemma: you have a glaring grammatical error in front

of you BUT this error does not relate to the criteria – do you comment on it?

• How focused are we on the criteria?

Feedback that moves learning on

• Suggestions on how to improve• ‘Strategy cards’ ideas for improvement• Not giving complete solutions

• Re-timing assessment• (eg two-thirds-of-the-way-through-a-unit test)

Students as owners of their learning

• Students assessing their own work • with rubrics• with exemplars

• Students being trained as markers