The Research About Feedback

" Feedback is the most powerful single modification that enhances achievement.

The simplest prescription for improving education must be dollops of feedback."

- John Hattie

What Is Feedback?

Feedback in the classroom can be defined as “information allowing a learner to reduce the gap between what is evident currently and what could or should be the case”.

Specifically, feedback is information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self/experience). It focuses on aspect's of the learner's performance or understanding.

The goal of feedback is to reduce the discrepancy between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood.

How does YOUR feedback assist learners in getting from one level of learning to the next?

Source: Visible Learning Meta X

Feedback's effect size ranges from .62 in the most up to date meta-analyses at Visible Learning Meta X to .72 as shown in John Hattie's 2009 book, Visible Learning. Of course, anything greater than .40 accelerates student growth in one school year.

"Information allowing a learner to reduce the gap between what is evident currently and what could or should be the case"

It is assessment FOR learning, not assessment OF learning.

It provides evidence about:

  • Where am I going?
  • How am I going?
  • Where to next?

What the Research Says aBOUT fEEDBACK

Feedback affects Students' PERCEPTIONS, SPEED, and MOTIVATION of Learning

  • Feedback can have a significant impact on learning, but this impact can be positive or negative depending on the type, delivery, and timing of the feedback. (Hattie and Timperley, 2007)
  • Effective feedback doubles the speed of learning. (Dylan William)
  • Feedback affects students’ motivation to learn and their perceptions about their intelligence and their ability to learn. (Black and Wiliam 1998, Butler, 1988)
  • Descriptive feedback is the most powerful tool for improving student learning. (John Hattie)

When Feedback Isn't So Hot

  • Evaluative feedback, (e.g., percentage marks, letter grades) and frequent evaluation can have a negative impact on learning and motivation. (Tunstall and Gipps, 1996, Black and Wiliam, 1998)
  • Even praise, when focused on characteristics of the learner rather than on the characteristics of the work, can have the opposite of the intended effect. (Dweck, 2007)
  • Certain types of feedback during the teaching-learning cycle, (e.g., evaluative, comparison to others) can actually have a negative impact on learning and motivation, convincing students that they lack ability, and thus reducing their desire to put forth effort to learn. (Black and Wiliam, 1998)

The REality of most Feedback

  • 80% of the feedback that kids receive is from each other, and 80% of that feedback is wrong. (Nuthall)
  • Teachers claim they routinely give a lot of helpful feedback to their students, but trained classroom observers see very low levels of teacher-to-student feedback.
  • Students report very little feedback from their teachers, just “a few seconds a day.”
  • •Most teacher feedback is presented to groups ("You all worked really hard today"), and so students often believe that such class feedback is not about them individually.