Meaningful Feedback
Meaningful Feedback
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Feedback is an important part of the Learning Partnerships section in Zaretta Hammond's Ready4Rigor framework. As a reminder, this section stresses the importance of being a partner to our students, believing in our students, reducing stereotype threat, and focusing on the rapport-building that can support our students' success. Providing students feedback that shows that you believe they can meet high standards while providing support is key for helping marginalized students meet their full potential.
It can be anxiety-inducing enough for a student to read through an instructor’s comments on their work, especially if the student sees their work as an extension of themself. Moreover, if the feedback is for a formative assessment, the student needs to consider their next steps based on the instructor’s notes. This could be particularly challenging if the feedback is vague, or if it emphasizes the “negatives” of the student’s work.
To keep the student’s momentum going, below are some tips and tricks for writing meaningful feedback a lá Zaretta Hammond’s “warm demander” ethos. Underscoring all of this is that feedback should always be actionable and timely. In other words, we need to provide feedback close to when submissions come in, and we need to have that feedback provide a concrete action for students to improve their learning.
The Warm Demander
The Warm Demander
Zaretta Hammond uses a term coined by Judith Kleinfled called warm demander to describe the mix of personal warmth and active demanding needed to equitably reach students. The warm demander:
Focuses explicitly on building rapport and trust
Shows personal regard for students (ex: asking about important people or events in students' lives)
Earns the right to demand engagement and effort
Holds high standards and offers support and scaffolding
Encourages productive struggle
Is viewed by students as caring because of personal regard and a "tough love" stance
Hammond also addresses other types of ethos that instructors can take, including the Technocrat, the Sentimentalist, and the Elitist. The graphic from her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain includes more details.
Feedback Styles
Feedback Styles
Praise & Critique
or, Praise the Student and Critique the Work
When our students successfully navigate parts of an assignment, our feedback can reflect that by acknowledging what they did directly using "you":
Example: “You’ve provided relevant background in the introduction about X that helps give your reader context.”
But, for students who see themselves in their work, direct commentary about what they ("you") did unsuccessfully can be jarring. Consider the following statement:
Example: “You’re unclear in your third paragraph.”
The implication is that the student is unable to communicate effectively rather than framing the issue as something within the assignment itself. How could this be revised so that there’s less of an accusatory tone toward the student’s communication skills?
Example: “The third paragraph would benefit from further clarification.”
With a slight shift, the feedback now acknowledges an area that needs revision without discrediting what the student has successfully accomplished in the assignment. Or, to put it in other terms: “you” for praise, “the project / the paper / the paragraph” for critique!
Provide Measurable Steps
When students get feedback from their instructors, they may see comments on what areas need revision. In the section above, we saw the following statement: “The third paragraph would benefit from further clarification.” While it identifies an area for improvement, how specifically can the student act on that feedback? What sections need clarification? What would constitute effective “clarification”? (Seems like the feedback itself needs clarification!)
All instances of critique should follow up with measurable steps—specific adjustments or actions to strengthen the assignment or the student’s understanding. If the student’s third paragraph needs clarification, some actionable steps could be:
You make a strong argument for Idea X and cite Source Y right after for support—however, Source Y challenges Idea X, so there’s a contradiction. Try incorporating another source that is more in line with your position, or explain how Source Y might be mistaken.
Compliment Sandwich
An oldie but goodie—the compliment sandwich refers to a chunk of feedback starting and ending with compliments (the buns of the sandwich) with suggestions for improvement in the middle (the contents of the sandwich). The idea is to cushion the critique so that students start and end their reading of the feedback on a positive note. For an effective compliment sandwich, reference specifics and follow up with actionable steps. Remind students of the resources that are available to them as they navigate the upcoming stages of the class. This could include a comment encouraging them to come for office hours, a note to set up an appointment, or references to particular pages on Canvas that include more information (like a project guide page).
Example
Your program passes all of the unit tests, and also follows most of the expected style conventions. You wrote high-quality Javadoc comments for the sumRows method. Unfortunately, the code in the body of the method is not as readable because several of the variable names are not meaningful; try replacing the variable names "i" and "j" with "row" and "column." With the adjustments to these variable names, you'll have an even stronger program. The Project 3 guide includes information extra information about variable names (particularly Section B), so take a look there, and let me know if you'd like to go over your revised project during office hours!
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