What should a teacher tell a student about how she is doing? About her academic work? About her classroom personality and behavior? About how she is making progress this year? Should it be praise? Critique? Reinforcement? Correction? Should it be what a student wants to hear or what a learner needs to know? Feedback is not simple.
In simple terms, at the end of the assignment or unit a teacher and the children being taught want to wind up at the same point – successful teaching causing successful learning. As a teacher gives feedback to children, the same processes of assessment pertain to the teacher’s progress in meeting teaching goals. A master teacher uses feedback to improve her own teaching.
In his highly informative study of how teacher and school behaviors affect student achievement, John Hattie assigns feedback to students a score of .79. As the average effect size is .40, feedback is one of the more powerful strategies teachers can use to move the needle of student achievement. The right feedback delivered at the right time in the right way makes a difference. If not, not so much.
John Hattie – Effect Size Study
Hattie, however, also notes that 89% of the talk in a classroom is teacher talk. He admonishes teachers to talk less and listen more. And this is a key to providing effective feedback. Listen to and watch for the moment to give a student the most effective information to affect her learning.
What is feedback?
Interestingly, there are two definitions of the word feedback that a teacher should know. The first definition is – helpful information that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve a performance or a product or their work. Feedback is relevant information. The second definition is technical yet truly fits school – an annoying and unwanted sound caused by signals being returned to an electronic sound system. Other feedback is disruptive noise.
Hattie listened to and surveyed students about feedback. His study said that 80% of the feedback a student receives comes from other students. As we consider Hattie’s findings, we nod in agreement that student-to-student talk categorized as feedback is social commentary, praise, complaint or just talk. This means that 80% of the feedback a student receives is not relevant information related to their learning achievement. It is the 20% feedback from a teacher to a student that has a potential for positively helping a student to learn.
What do we know about feedback?
In this discussion, we will consider feedback as information from a teacher to a student(s).
Feedback is categorized as either formative or summative.
- Formative feedback is given during the learning process. Formative feedback while children are engaged in their learning should be given frequently. This is forward looking feedback. When given within their engagement, children can apply the feedback immediately.
- Summative feedback is given after the learning process has been completed. This is backward looking feedback, usually after evaluation and a grade has been assigned. Sometimes summative feedback can help motivate a student for the next learning, but usually it is a “post-game recap.”
Feedback that feeds learning answers three questions.
- What is the goal and is the goal clearly understood? Once a child is engaged in the assignment, the goal often gets lost in the doing of the assignment. For example, a second-grade child may be fully engaged in completing 10 multiplication problems but not in understanding the process and logic of multiplication. Formative feedback from the teacher focuses a child on learning from the assignment not just doing the assignment. Children of all ages face this dilemma; they focus on doing all the assignments rather than what the assignment teaches them.
- How is the child doing in achieving the goal(s)? Feedback that confirms that a child is understanding the goal of the assignment powerfully reinforces the progression of learning. In writing a five-paragraph essay, a teacher can give feedback about the quality of the introductory paragraph that reinforces that step and sets a positive beginning for the next step. Being told that she is on the right track motivates a child to keep working.
- What action should the child engage in next? “Next” feedback is often a well-phrased question. “Have your considered …?” asks by asking the child to stop and think? The pause suggests there are several options. Or “Take another look at the goal and the steps in the process” alerts a child that their process is incomplete and allows a correction before ending the assignment.
Feedback is about the learning process not the details within the process. For example, a teacher may see child needs assistance organizing a written assignment and at the same time see mistakes in spelling or capitalization in the written answer. Feedback should focus on key issues before minor issues. Corrective feedback should address the bigger issue of organization before addressing the smaller issue of mechanics.
Feedback is learning goal-oriented and praise is person-oriented. Constructive feedback always is information that focuses on the learning goal and assignments to achieve the goals. Praise or criticism is usually not academic but personal. “You are really smart today” or “… looking good today” is nice for a child to hear but does not inform their learning.
Lastly, feedback is like fertilizer on a lawn – applied at the right time, it causes growth. But overly applied, it can burn out the grass. Children need time to process teacher feedback. Give it and then listen and watch for its effects.
Feedback fed right.
Madeline Hunter told us that teaching is a million decisions about what to do, why to do it, and how to do it to cause learning. Giving feedback is one of those decisions, because if teacher talk is not purposeful it falls into that category of classroom noise.
As a checklist, consider these points in your feedback strategy. Remember, feedback feeds what a child needs to hear to be a successful learner and is not what a teacher just wants to say to a child.
- Is it goal-oriented?
- Does it lead to student action?
- Is it process not person focused?
- Does it provide reinforcement as well as clarification/correction?
- Is it timely in the learning process?
- Is it chunked and not too much or too little?
- Is it formative or summative?
- Is it proximal to the child’s learning curve?
- Will it make a difference in learning outcomes?
- Does it lead the child to be self-assessing in the future?
If you have affirmative checks on any or some of these, give the feedback.
Feedback is targeted to what a child needs to hear not what a class needs to hear. When a teacher decides that the entire class or a large group of students need the same feedback. Whole class or large group information is a lesson or a tier-two intervention not feedback.
And now that you know what feedback, you also know that feedback is not delivered with a red pen.
The Big Duh!
Feedback is part of a teacher’s total instructional design. Once a teacher launches a lesson, the teacher is not an impartial observer. As a shepherd herds sheep toward home, a teacher uses feedback to ensure that all children reach their learning destination successfully. Every child engaged in the process of a lesson can profit from a teacher’s feedback, not just the lost sheep. Some feedback causes a child to succeed in the lesson and other feedback causes a child to really succeed – all children can use a teacher’s good feedback.