Effective Feedback

March 24th, 2015

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Welcome!

Today’s Goals Examine data and evaluate “Building Better Brains”

Define “feedback” and explore the purpose and value of feedback to a learner

Identify quality indicators of effective feedback

Explore the connection between effective feedback and growth mindset

Practice using effective feedback on authentic student work samples

Look forward to May 18th – TIP 3rd Annual Colloquium

What is Feedback?

“Feedback is an objective description of a student’s performance intended to guide future performance. Unlike evaluation, which judges performance, feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target and provide them tips on what they can do in the future to improve in areas that need correcting.”

~ W. Fred Miser, M.D.Chief of Residency, OSU School of Medicine

What is Feedback?“Research has shown that effective feedback is an integral part of an instructional dialogue between teacher and student, (or between students, or between the student and him/herself).”

From “Providing Students with Effective Feedback”

What is Feedback?

“Feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval.

That’s what evaluation is – placing value.

Feedback is value-neutral. It describes what you did and did not do.”

~ Grant Wiggins

effective feedback is

descriptive

not evaluative

What is Effective Feedback?

In 1996, Pat Tunstall and Caroline Gipps developed a typology of teacher feedback by recording and classifying the feedback given by teachers to their students. They classified feedback as either:

evaluative – involving a value judgment

OR

descriptive – describing what the student said or did, and providing guidance for improvement

What is Effective Feedback?

Evaluative feedback involves a judgment by the teacher based on implicit or explicit norms.

Evaluative feedback may take the form of:

Approval: “That’s a good essay.” “You’ve done well.”Disapproval: “That’s not good enough.”Reward: Gold starsPunishment: “Write it out again.”

Evaluative Feedback?

Descriptive feedback:

focuses on identified learning outcomes and makes specific reference to the student’s achievement.

looks towards improvement.

An example of descriptive feedback:

“That’s a good introduction because you have covered the main points we discussed at the beginning. Now … which points do you think you should expand on?”

Descriptive Feedback

Evaluative Feedback

Judgment: A+ work Try harder next time

Good essay Not strong

Descriptive FeedbackFocused on Targets:•Accurate work in discussing the main points. What can you now expand on?•Your hypothesis is a useful proposal. How can you rewrite it as an if…then…statement?•Process was correctly followed but you made a simple mathematical error in step 2. Remember to check your work.

An emphasis on evaluative feedback can affect how students feel about themselves.

It can make the good students feel better (and possibly complacent)

and the less able students feel worse (and the more sure that

they will never be able to succeed.)

1) Where am I going?

2) How am I going?

3) How can I close the gap?

Effective Feedback answers 3 questions

1) Where am I going?- a student has a clear understanding of the desired goal, a vision of the target

2) How am I going?- a student is given frequent and descriptive notes

about his present position in relation to that goal

3) How can I close the gap?- a student is given guidance on how to close the gap between where he is going and how he is going to get there

Effective Feedback answers 3 questions

The 3 feedback questions work at four Levels of Effective Feedback…

Four Levels of Effective Feedback

◦Task◦Process◦Self-regulation◦Self

Task

“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 re-write them in that order.”

Task

Please examine a student work sample and use the TASK level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Process“You’re asked to compare these ideas. For example, you could try to see how they are similar, how they are different…How do they relate to each other?

Process

Please examine a student work sample and use the PROCESS level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Self Regulation and Direction

Tundra.com

“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.”

Self Regulation and Direction

Please examine a student work sample and use the SELF REGULATION and DIRECTION level prompts to help determine what feedback you might give.

Self“This level of feedback is commonly subsumed under the notion of ‘praise.’

Praise the students by making feel welcome in your class and worthwhile as learners, but if you wish to make a major difference to learning, leave praise out of feedback about learning.”

-John Hattie

Best Practice

Best Practice

Specific

Adequate amount and detail:

for the target to the student

“Incorrect strategy.”

“Very precise lines and points in your graphing, but remember to label your axes.”

Descriptive

About the

task process self-regulation

“Nice opening sentence.”

“Your opening sentence grabbed the reader with descriptive detail and introduced the mystery to be solved.”

Actionable

Explains:

what to do how to do it

“It looks like you worked hard on your poster but it needs more detail.”

“You have a good start with your review of the main ideas in the center of your poster. It would help to use the side panels to provide supporting evidence.”

Understandable

Can be acted upon

is specific is clear

“Good presentation skills”

“You engaged the listeners through your questioning strategy. Remember also, to make eye contact with your audience.”

When feedback is given in writing, some students:

have difficulty understanding the points the teacher is trying to make

are unable to read the teacher’s writing

can’t process the feedback and understand what to do next.

Asking a student to tell you what they think you are trying to say to them is the best way to check this out.

Written Feedback

Findings from research showed that:

• Students given only marks made no gain from the first to the second lesson.

• Students given only comments scored on average 30% higher.

• Giving marks alongside comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments.

Research conclusion: If you are going to grade or mark a piece of work, you are wasting your time writing careful diagnostic comments.

Marks vs. Comments

Comment-only marking - provides students with a focus for progression instead of a reward or punishment for their ego (as a grade does).Comments should make it clear how the student can improve.

Self Assessment - Reinforce the focus on redrafting and comment-only marking by insisting on seeing evidence of student self-assessment on their work before you look at it.

Feedback Sandwich – Positive comment/Constructive criticism with explanation of how to improve /Positive comment

Clarke (2001) – “When giving written feedback, teachers highlight two or three successes in the student’s work and one area where some improvement is necessary.”

A few practical strategies

Focus Question:

Will students who have received Building Better Brains and Growth-Mindset Feedback improve beyond prior performances on academic tasks?

Presentations Post-training TIPster planning Presentation Content

2014-15 TIP Colloquium Guidelines