How You Can Use a Top-Ten Instructional Strategy to Boost Learning (Part 5/7)
This is the fifth story in a series of posts about how learning science insights can improve course design. The other stories are linked within and included at the end of this post.
Feedback is one of the single most effective ways to improve student learning.
Feedback is essential to learning.
Feedback tells us how we’re doing. How close (or far!) we are from our targets. What changes we need to make in order to improve.
Feedback can boost our confidence or show us where we struggle. Feedback can change our beliefs about ourselves.
As you would expect from something so powerful, feedback is complex. There’s a lot of nuance around what type of feedback is effective, when feedback is effective, and how people should give feedback.
There’s research that looks at the features of feedback. There’s research that looks at the features of the method of feedback delivery. There’s research that looks at the way feedback is received.
Let’s take a look at some of the consistent findings within this complexity so that we can make sure our feedback improves student learning.
Making Sense of Feedback
Before we even look at the characteristics of feedback, let’s take a detour into the mind of the receiver. When you receive feedback you have a choice: listen or not. Engage with it or don’t. But while you’re working on something — while you’re planning, drafting, editing, revising, and reflecting on your work — you also have a choice: where should I look for information about what I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to do it?
Models of feedback and learning suggest that one of the most powerful aspects of feedback is how we engage with it internally, how we evaluate our work and our progress. New research suggests that, fundamentally, we all make comparisons all the time [13]. These comparisons, then, form internal feedback. All other feedback we receive — from teachers, from peers, from external sources — is interpreted through the lens of the comparisons we make with our own work.
Based on this model, one of the most impactful ways we can design a task is to build in opportunities for learners to make comparisons between their work and others’ work (both good and substandard examples) and to explicitly reflect on those comparisons.
Now, we can think about the features of feedback and how to support learners with engaging with feedback. Just remember, throughout it all, you may want to help students make comparisons between the feedback and their own understanding.
Features of Feedback
What makes feedback useful?
Feedback is more effective when it is descriptive, in the form of comments, not a grade.
In one often-cited study [1], three groups received either just a grade, just a comment, or a comment and a grade. Those who received just a grade made no gains in future achievement. Those who received just a comment made significant gains, scoring 30% higher on follow-up work. Those who received a comment and a grade, surprisingly, made as little gain as those who received just a grade.
This suggests that when feedback is accompanied by a grade, students look just at the final measure of their performance instead of seeing the feedback as a way to improve.
How many times do you spend hours providing feedback and then also write down a grade? This study suggests your hours would have been much better spent if you didn’t provide the number or letter alongside your comments.
Feedback that provides an explanation of why the answer is correct or incorrect is more effective than just a correct answer [2, 3]. This makes intuitive sense, because this type of explanation helps students understand what they did wrong. It’s important to note, here, that a lot of times students don’t find teachers’ explanations all that helpful [4].
Just because we provide an explanation, doesn’t mean our students understand our reasoning.
Therefore, feedback is most effective when it’s a dialogue, giving students the opportunity to ask questions and get clarification from the teacher or peer providing the feedback [4]. Dialogues about assessment also allow students to better understand the teacher’s expectations, better understand the criteria and grading procedures, and better understand that feedback is based on the work, not a judgment of the student.
The best time for feedback depends on the type of learning. For example, when students are first learning content, they may benefit from immediate feedback, letting them know when they’re getting it right and when they’re off track.
As students become more expert in the content, they benefit from delayed feedback. This allows them to self-regulate and monitor their own learning [5]. As they become more expert, they can — and should — check their own progress, so frequent feedback from us can be a distraction.
An important caveat: when weaker students need to struggle for a long time before receiving feedback, their motivation and performance may decrease [3].
The context of feedback matters [11,12]. Feedback is more effective when students can do something with the knowledge: can they re-submit their work? Or use your comments to improve similar future tasks? Do you provide enough time to reflect on the feedback before moving on to the next learning activity?
The most effective feedback answers three questions [6]:
- Where am I going? (What are the goals?)
- How am I going? (What progress is being made toward the goal?)
- Where to next? (What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress?) (86)
Although many teachers give feedback on what is wrong with an assignment, students find it more helpful when their feedback tells them what they need to do next time [4].
This looks easy. But take an honest look at the feedback you give students and ask yourself:
- Does my feedback reinforce the goals of the assignment? In an English class, for example, where I’ve asked students to focus on creating mood in a short story, I probably shouldn’t spend too much time giving feedback on grammar and spelling.
- Does my feedback only refer to the task or also mention the process? Do I comment on only the final product or also on the strategies or resources students used?
- Does my feedback explicitly let students know how they’re progressing against a standard? Do I explicitly go back to previous work to comment on their personal progress?
- Do I give explicit steps for what needs to happen next? Are those recommendations reasonable and feasible?
In a book about formative assessment, Dylan Wiliam cites an anecdote about a student who receives the comment “You need to be more systematic in [your work].” Frustrated, the student responds “If I knew how to be more systematic, I would have been more systematic the first time” [7].
Likewise, I think we’ve all had the experience of getting a piece of work back with so many corrections and comments that we have no clue where to start. Rather than wade through all of that red ink, it’s very tempting to just put the paper away and hope for a better result next time.
If this is all getting a bit abstract, John Hattie, a well-regarded education researcher, provides some examples of feedback at various levels [8]:
Task level: “You’ve written the first thing first, but after that it becomes muddled. You need to go through what you’ve written, number the order in which things happened, and rewrite them in that order” (119)
Process level: “You’re stuck on this word and you’ve looked at me instead of trying to work it out. Can you work out why you might have gotten in wrong — and can you then try a different strategy?” (119)
Self-regulation level: “I’m impressed by how you went back to the beginning of the sentence when you became stuck on this word — but, in this case, it didn’t help. What else could you do? When you decide on what it means, I want you to tell me how confident you are and why.” (120)
What else matters with feedback? This is important: feedback about a person is ineffective. Praise, for example. Telling a student “You’re so smart.” Or handing out accolades like “Great job!”
Almost all of the studies found that praise doesn’t help learning and sometimes even hinders it. Unfortunately, studies that measure the types of feedback teachers usually give in classrooms find that praise is the most frequent type given.
Clearly, there is no silver bullet. There is no one type of feedback that always works and that’s always best.
That makes sense. Because looking at the actual feedback is only looking at one part of the equation. We also need to look at the student and how she receives the feedback.
Tying It Together
A lot of people have studied feedback. It’s one of the most studied aspects of education. And it’s cited as having a very big impact on learning.
But there’s a very big but. There’s no one right way to give feedback. There’s no one right time to give feedback. We have tried and tried to find the formula for the best feedback and it simply doesn’t exist.
If it’s any consolation, there is one wrong way: praise.
Studying the Receiver of Feedback
When evaluating the effectiveness of feedback, there are clearly two sides: the feedback being given and the feedback being received. Therefore, in addition to examining feedback within the learning cycle, many researchers are now turning their focus to better understanding the recipient of feedback, aka the student.
Dylan Wiliam, in his book Embedded Formative Assessment [7], states “feedback functions formatively only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance” (120) (italics mine).
We have to understand the psychology of the person receiving feedback. We have to understand what makes them more or less likely to ‘hear’ the feedback. We have to understand what motivates them to use (or ignore) our feedback.
So, how can we help our students take our feedback on board?
We can make sure students understand our expectations and the requirements. If they understand where we’re going — and why — they can see how our feedback helps them get to the end goal [9].
We can work on our relationships with students. When students feel safe and feel like we’re ‘on their side’, they’re more likely to engage with our feedback [9].
We can help our students develop the ability to evaluate their own work, set their own goals, and monitor their engagement [9]. These metacognitive skills are essential to many aspects of learning, in part because they help students get an accurate understanding of their current performance so they can take steps to improve.
But there are important other ways students differ in terms of how they receive feedback.
Students who have higher self-efficacy — the belief that they can accomplish a specific task — are more resilient when given negative feedback. Students with lower self-efficacy — those who think they probably can’t do the task — usually react badly to negative feedback. They may give up, be less motivated, react emotionally to the feedback, or conclude that the feedback means they’re ‘dumb’ [6]. As teachers, we don’t want any of these results.
A student’s belief about intelligence — their mindset — is also important [10]. On the one hand, feedback can be an important tool to change students’ mindsets. On the other hand, a student who believes their intelligence is innate or fixed, may be less likely to engage with feedback.
If you believe that you can’t improve beyond a certain level because that’s just how smart you are, then you’re less likely to try to improve based on feedback.
Tying It Together
Looking at the characteristics of those who receive feedback is still a very young field [9]. In the next few years, we should have a lot more information about how individual differences impact how students engage with feedback.
Right now, we can be confident that there are important differences in how students receive feedback. We can try to use everything we know about a student to make sure our feedback is effective and heard.
We can be explicit and consistent in our communication. We can work to create safe spaces and communities of learners. And we can learn from each feedback experience so that we better understand what helps our students use our feedback.
The Take-Away
So, what can we do to make feedback more effective?
Be explicit about inviting students to make comparisons between their drafts and others’.
Give feedback about the task, the process and students’ self-regulation. Make your feedback explicit and forward-looking.
And think about the context. Do you give feedback at the end of the period, as students run out the door? Do you build in activities for them to reflect on the feedback? Is there a dialogue? Can students give you feedback?
But keep in mind the students who are receiving your feedback. How can you help them be more receptive to it? Work on relationships. Work on knowing each of them.
Avoid praise.
Above all: give feedback. Give feedback regularly. Teach students to give each other feedback. Ask students to give you feedback. Create a culture that values feedback.
And see how students learn better.
Related Posts
How Insights from Learning Science Can Transform Your Teaching (Part 1/7)
Three Insights From Learning Science to Structure Your Lessons Better (Part 2/7)
Three Powerful Lessons from Psychology To Change How You Plan Lesson Content (Part 3/7)
What Learning Science Says About How to Teach (Part 4/7)
The Surprising Ways Thinking About Learning Can Impact Learning (Part 6/7)
Rethinking Testing: Better Ways to Use Assessment to Improve Learning (Part 7/7)
Teaching in a Pandemic: How Learning Science can Help (Part 8/7)
Prior Knowledge: Why It Matters and What We Can Do
References
- Butler, R. (1988). Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: The effects of task‐involving and ego‐involving evaluation on interest and performance. British journal of educational psychology, 58(1), 1–14.
- Butler, A. C., Godbole, N., & Marsh, E. J. (2013). Explanation feedback is better than correct answer feedback for promoting transfer of learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 290.
- Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of educational research, 78(1), 153–189.
- Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in higher education, 31(2), 219–233.
- Kalyuga, S., Ayres, P., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (2003). The expertise reversal effect. Educational psychologist, 38(1), 23–31.
- Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of educational research, 77(1), 81–112.
- Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press.
- Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.
- Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Parker, M., & Rowntree, J. (2017). Supporting Learners’ Agentic Engagement With Feedback: A Systematic Review and a Taxonomy of Recipience Processes. Educational Psychologist, 52(1), 17–37.
- Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Incorporated.
- Bangert-Drowns, R. L., Kulik, C. L. C., Kulik, J. A., & Morgan, M. (1991). The instructional effect of feedback in test-like events. Review of educational research, 61(2), 213–238.
- Hattie, J., & Gan, M. (2011). Instruction based on feedback. Handbook of research on learning and instruction, 249–271.
- Nicol, D. (2020). The power of internal feedback: exploiting natural comparison processes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1–23.
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Stephanie Hepner has taught middle and high school special education/learning support and English in New York, Brussels, and Stockholm. She currently works in education in Singapore. An international educator committed to equity in education, she is passionate about learning science as it promises to improve learning for all students.
