Effective Formative Feedback
"Nothing that we do to, or for, our students is more important than our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on it.”
(Race, Brown and Smith 2005)
Providing effective formative feedback is central to formative assessment and the use of digital portfolios has the potential to make it more efficient for teachers to provide feedback and for pupils to respond to it.
This feedback is based on evidence of how and what the pupils are learning. Feedback focused on the learning or task in hand, can help pupils identify and celebrate their progress and achievements, pinpoint challenges they experience, and decide what the next steps should be. This level of involvement in shaping their own learning can heighten pupils’s awareness of themselves as learners and encourage them to take more personal responsibility for, and pride in, their learning.
(NCCA, 2007: P9)