How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students

by Susan M. Brookhart

Feedback matches specific descriptions and suggestions with a particular student's work. It is just-in-time, just-for-me information delivered when and where it can do the most good.

Feedback is an important component of the formative assessment process.

Formative assessment gives information to teachers and students about how students are doing relative to

classroom learnin...

Feedback can be very powerful if done well. The power of formative feedback lies in its double-barreled approach, addressing both cognitive and motivational factors at the same time.

understand where they are in their learning and what to do next—the cognitive factor.

understand what to do and why, most students develop a feeling that they have control over their own lea...

students have to be able to hear and understand it.

Students can't hear something that's beyond their comprehension; nor can they hear something if they are not listening or feel like it would be useless to listen. Because students' feelings of control and self-efficacy are involved, even well-intentioned feedback can be very destructive

For now, the important point is that feedback should be part of a learning process. Even the most elegantly phrased feedback message will not improve learning unless both the teacher and student learn from the feedback process and unless the student has, and takes advantage of, an opportunity to use the feedback.

The most effective learning occurs when students know what it is they are trying to learn, use criteria to actively compare their current work to the goal, and take action to improve (Moss & Brookhart, 2012). Formative feedback is part of this process. It is not giving comments on final work at the end of the lesson. There is no ongoing learning process there; the work either goes home or gets thrown away, and the student may or may not remember the comments the next time she does similar work. Formative feedback involves giving comments (or arranging for self- or peer assessment), then giving a student additional performance opportunities within the same learning cycle. Even feedback that occurs on that additional work should feed students forward to the learning that comes next, usually the next lesson's learning target.

The "micro view" means looking at the feedback message itself, as if through a microscope, analyzing what is said or written and how the message is delivered.

The "snapshot view" means looking at the feedback as an episode of learning, as if a camera were taking a snapshot of the learning. In the snapshot view, we ask two questions: What did the teacher learn from the feedback episode, and what did the student learn from it?

The "long view" means looking at the results of the feedback, as if looking through a te...

Figure 1.2. Feedback Analysis Guide

Although this book focuses on formative feedback, it is worth noting that feedback has traditionally occurred (and continues to, in some quarters) as part of grading—that is, summative assessment.

In one classic study, Page (1958) found that student achievement was higher for a group receiving prespecified comments instead of letter grades and higher still for students receiving free comments written by the teacher. Writing comments was more effective for learning than giving grades.

Students who received descriptive comments as feedback on their first session's work performed better on both tasks in the final session and reported feeling more motivated about their work. Students who received evaluative grades as feedback on their first session's work performed well on the quantitative task in the final session but poorly on the divergent-thinking task and were less motivated. The students who received no feedback performed poorly on both tasks in the final session and also were less motivated.

Butler and Nisan's work affirms an observation that many classroom teachers have made about their students: if a paper is returned with both a grade and a comment, many students will pay attention to the grade and ignore the comment. The grade "trumps" the comment; the student will read a comment that the teacher intended to be descriptive as an explanation of the grade. Descriptive comments have the best chance of being read as descriptive if they are not accompanied by a grade.

If part of the classroom culture is to always "get things right," then if something needs improvement, it's "wrong.

If, instead, the classroom culture values finding and using suggestions for improvement, students will be able to use feedback, plan and execute steps for improvement, and, in the long run, reach further than they could if they were stuck with assignments on which they could already get an A without any new learning. It is not fair to students to present them with feedback but no opportunities to use it. Nor is it fair to present students with what seems like constructive criticism and then use it against them in a grade or final evaluation.

According to this theory, positive feedback is considered "positive reinforcement," and negative feedback is considered "punishment." Both reinforcement and punishment affect learning; thus, feedback is theorized to be effective. The problem with this theory is that not all feedback actually is effective.

More recent studies recognize the role of students in the feedback process. They study the kind of feedback given and the context in which it is presented. What we now realize is that the message sent is filtered through the student's perception (influenced by prior knowledge, experiences, and motivation) as it becomes the message received.

Making meaning requires using and controlling one's own thought processes. This is called self-regulation.

both external feedback (such as teacher feedback) and internal feedback (such as student self-evaluation) affect student knowledge and beliefs. Together they help students with self-regulation: deciding on their next learning goals, devising tactics and strategies to reach them, and producing work.

Teachers can't "make" students focus on or learn something. Rather, teacher feedback is input that, together with students' own internal input, will help the students decide where they are in regard to the learning goal...

Feedback can be the information that drives the process, or it can be a stumbling block that derails the process.

Feedback about the task (such as about whether answers are right or wrong or directions to get more information), Feedback about the processing of the task (such as about strategies used or strategies that could be used), Feedback about self-regulation (such as about student self-evaluation or self-confidence), and Feedback about the student as a person (such as pronouncements that a student is "good" or "smart").

Feedback about the qualities of the work and the process or strategies used to do the work are most helpful. Feedback that draws students' attention to their self-regulation strategies or their abilities as learners can be effective if students hear it in a way that makes them realize they will get the results they want if they expend effort and attention. Personal comments ("Good girl!") do not draw students' attention to their learning.

She called for feedback focused on the task, not the learner; feedback that is specific and clear; and feedback that helps the learner focus on learning, not performance. She called for avoiding comparisons with other students and for using grades with feedback, as well as for providing immediate feedback tasks requiring procedural and conceptual knowledge and delayed feedback to promote transfer of learning.

A central finding in this research is that elaborated feedback—feedback that concentrates on evidence of what students were thinking and not merely about whether their answers were correct—leads to more improvement in learning than simple knowledge of results.

It also matches what is known about effective formative assessment (see Chapter 5): Feedback needs to describe where students are in relation to the learning they are aiming for

Notice that the suggestions depend on context: the characteristics of your students, the assignment, and the classroom atmosphere.

When you are deciding on a feedback strategy, you are also, of course, deciding what it is that you want to say to the student.

Students need to receive feedback while they are still mindful of the topic, assignment, or performance in question and while they still think of the learning goal as a learning goal—that is, as something they are still striving to achieve. In fact, they especially need to receive feedback while they still have some reason to work on the learning goal.

A general principle for gauging the timing of feedback is to put yourself in the students' place. When would students want to hear your feedback? When they are still thinking about the work, of course, and can still do something about it.

Examples of Good Feedback Timing Returning a test or assignment the next day Giving immediate oral responses to questions of fact Giving immediate oral responses to student misconceptions Providing flash cards (which give immediate right/wrong feedback) for studying facts

Examples of Bad Feedback Timing Returning a test or assignment two weeks after it is completed Ignoring errors or misconceptions (thereby implying acceptance) Going over a test or assignment when the unit is over and there is no opportunity to show improvement

A natural inclination is to want to "fix" everything you see. That's the teacher's-eye view, where the target is perfect achievement of all learning goals. For real learning, what makes the difference is a usable amount of information that connects with something students already know and takes them from that point to the next level.

Judging the right amount of feedback to give—how much, on how many points—requires deep knowledge and

consideration of the following three factors: The topic in general and your learning target or targets in particular, Typical developmental learning progressions for those t...

Your feedback should give students a clear understanding of what to do next on a point or points that they can see they need to work on. This requires you to know your students; for some, simply getting clarity and improvement on one point is sufficient, whereas others can handle more.

On which aspects of the learning target has the student done acceptable work? Which aspects of the learning target would the student benefit from improving upon next? Are any particular assignments coming up that would make it wiser to emphasize one point over another? Is there any particular point that you and the student have a history about?

For students to get enough feedback so that they understand what to do but not so much that the work has been done for them (differs case by case)

Examples of Good Amounts of Feedback Selecting two or three main points about a paper for comment Giving feedback on important learning targets Commenting on at least as many strengths as weaknesses

Examples of Bad Amounts of Feedback Returning a student's paper with every error in mechanics edited Writing comments on a paper that are more voluminous than the paper itself Writing voluminous comments on poor-quality papers and almost nothing on good-quality papers

Some kinds of assignments lend themselves better to written feedback (for example, reviewing and writing comments on students' written work), some to oral feedback (for example, observing and commenting as students do math problems as seatwork), and some to demonstrations (for example, helping a kindergarten student hold a pencil correctly). Some of the best feedback can result from conversations with the student.

"What are you noticing about this?" "Does anything surprise you?"

Examples of Good Feedback Mode Using written feedback for comments that students need to be able to save and look over Using oral feedback for students who don't read well Using oral feedback if there is more information to convey than students would want to read Demonstrating how to do something if the student needs to see how to do something or what something "looks like"

Examples of Bad Feedback Mode Speaking to students to save yourself the trouble of writing Writing to students who don't read well