Feedback and Improvement in

Student Learning

Helen TimperleyProfessor of Education

The University of Auckland

New Zealand

• Auckland

•Wellington

• Christchurch

Overview of Presentation

• Feedback and its power

• Challenges for teachers

• An inquiry and knowledge building cycle for improvement

Feedback

• Information provided by someone or something to a learner about aspects of performance or understanding– Feedback follows teaching– May be seen as new teaching when it fills gap

between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood

Influences on Achievement ?

(Hattie, 2009)

Decreased EnhancedZero

0

The typical influence on achievement (Hattie, 2009)

The typical effect across

• 800+ meta-analysis

• 50,000 studies, and

• 200+ million students

Effect on Achievement over time?

Decreased EnhancedZero

0 .20

Typical Effect Size

1.0.40

Where feedback fits (Hattie, 2009)

1 Acceleration (speed up a year) .88

2 Feedback .73

3 Student-teacher relationships .72

4 Teaching study skills .59

5 Cooperative learning .41

6 Homework .29

7 Mentoring .15

8 Ability grouping .12

9 Retention (hold back a year) -.16

The Power of Feedback

• Comes from being embedded in strategies involving:– Student self-report grades (Rank 1)– Formative evaluation (Rank 3)– Teacher clarity (Rank 8)

• But not all feedback promotes student learning

What feedback would you give to this student?

(Parr & Timperley, 2010) • Learning objective: To learn how to structure a

recount (an account of some event that has occurred)

• Intended audience and purpose: Tell your friends in an interesting way about a trip you have been on– This student wrote about a trip to Sydney and

Brisbane (Australia)

• Write down two pieces of feedback you would give to this student

Hi I am at home planning my next trip to synedy and Brisbaned for Christmas and New yearsday I am going to stay in syned for a week and I am going to stay in Brisburnd for a week withmy mum’s flat mate. When I went over to synedy las time I met rua hes a dog of chris’s. Chris is one of marys flat mate now last time when I went there I had to count his money. Then there is nan she has 3 children one is around 14 years old the seoncod is 2 years old and the youngst child is nine mothes old. Then I went to Brisbured. When I got to Synedy I am going to go to all this fantsey parks and and I am going to stay in a hotal.

Feedback can be detrimental

• When it does not give information about how to improve, for example:– Tentative grades with no comments– Feedback associated with extrinsic rewards– Personal praise / criticism that distracts from

the task

My day is boring and I don’t know what this assignment is about.

D-

You are so clever

Purpose – to reduce discrepancy between current understandings and a desired goal

Ways to reduce the discrepancyIncrease effort or abandon goal

Answers three questionsWhere am I going? How am I going? Where to next?

Task Process Self- Regulation

SelfTask

PurposeTo reduce discrepancies between current understandings / performance and a desired goal

Key conditions:1.Students must have a learning goal

• Answers the question, “Where am I going?

2.Most effective when goals are specific and challenging but not too difficult

Ways to reduce the discrepancy

•Increase effort using more effective strategies•Abandon, blur or lower the goal

Key conditions:•Teachers work with students to identify appropriate challenging and specific goals

•Teachers assist students to reach them through effective learning strategies

“Where to next?”

Answers three questionsWhere am I going? GoalHow am I going? FeedbackWhere to next? Feed-forward

Task level How well the tasks are understood / performed

Process level

Self Regulation

Self level

The main processes needed to understand / perform tasks

Self-monitoring, directing and regulation of actions

Personal evaluations and affect (usually positive) about the learner

Each feedback question works at four levels

Hi I am at home planning my next trip to synedy and Brisbaned for Christmas and New yearsday I am going to stay in syned for a week and I am going to stay in Brisburnd for a week withmy mum’s flat mate. When I went over to synedy las time I met rua hes a dog of chris’s. Chris is one of marys flat mate now last time when I went there I had to count his money. Then there is nan she has 3 children one is around 14 years old the seoncod is 2 years old and the youngs child is nine mothes old. Then I went to Brisbured. When I got to Synedy I am going to go to all this fantsey parks and and I am going to stay in a hotal.

How Would Your Feedback Have Scored?

For a high score (on our rubric):

• Feedback provides an indication of:– Extent to which the writer met the learning

objective (structuring recounts)– Extent to which writing had features

associated with audience and purpose for writing (friends about an interesting trip)

– What action the writer could take to improve

The Research Results

• 49 teachers

• Relationship between the quality of feedback score and gains in student achievement on a nationally normed measure of writing (asTTle) highly significant (r=.685, p<.01)

A second study (Timperley & Parr, 2009)

In a professional development project we examined extent to which teachers were explicit about and students understood – Learning objectives– Success criteria– Feedback– Feed forward

• 15 teachers, observed lessons (with

microphones), students interviewed

Teachers’ Learning Sequence

• Clarity of learning objectives and success criteria developed first for teachers (and understood by students)

• Found personal praise difficult to stop;• Feedback about task

& process rare; • Feed forward almost non-

non-existent

Learning How to Give Feedback in Ways that Promote Student Learning• Requires that teachers’ professional learning is

carefully scaffolded over time (in the same way as student learning)– Teachers identify learning goals with students – Identify own professional learning goals about

feedback practice for themselves (in relation to students’ learning goals)

– Seek feedback from students and leaders on their progress

– Readjust their feedback practice– And so on ...

Timperley, H. (2008) Teacher Professional Learning and Development. International Academy of Education. International Bureau of Education. Paris: UNESCO

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need? What knowledge and skills do we

as teachers need?

What has been the

impact of our changed actions? Deepen

professional knowledge and

refine skillsEngage students in new learning experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote student outcomes for teachers

Deepen student and professional learning

focus

Relationship between professional and student learning

Re-assess students’ knowledge and skillsRe-assess students’ knowledge and skills

Professionals refine feedback practices

Professionals refine feedback practices

Observe how students respond (Prof feedback)

Observe how students respond (Prof feedback)

Professionals assisted to Identify feedback practices

and new skills required

Professionals assisted to Identify feedback practices

and new skills required

Assess students’ knowledge and skills

Assess students’ knowledge and skills

Feedback and Improvement

For Rest of the Day: Think about How Teachers Can

Inquire and Build Knowledge• High stakes testing and student learning

• National Monitoring system

• Criteria development with teachers

• Macro or micro assessment policy

• Assessment in Curriculum of Excellence

• Developing an ‘assessment for learning’ culture