Providing Student Feedback

BENEFITS

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• Feedback has a large positive effect on student achievement.

 

• Ongoing, formative feedback prompts students to reflect on their understanding, notice misconceptions, and adjust their strategies.

 

• Clear, actionable feedback—especially when tied to specific criteria and growth—can boost student confidence and sense of competence.

 

• By surfacing misunderstandings early, feedback prevents students from practicing errors.

 

• Reciprocal feedback (students to teacher and teacher to students) turns the classroom into a more collaborative learning community. link

 

 

 

4 TYPES of FEEDBACK

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first:   Feed UP – “What will we learn today and how will we know when we learned it” (Examples: success criteria; learning objectives; success indicators; rubrics)

• “Today we are learning…”
• “Success in this task will look like…”
• “The key ideas and concepts are…”
• “Strategies you will need in this task are…”

 

second: Feed BACK – “This is how well you did today” (Examples: extrinsic motivation; praise; rewards; grades; evaluative statements or judgements; both positive and negative)

• “You have/haven’t met the success criteria because…”
• “Based on your performance, you deserve a….”
• “You demonstrated skills to this level…”
• “Good job…”

 

third: Feed IN – “Tell me about what you did and why you made these decisions?” (Examples: Meta-cognitive questions; thinking about own thinking; goal setting; use of intrinsic motivation)

• “Describe what you were doing and why…”
• Repeat / restate back what they said to facilitate more dialogue – “So, you were thinking…”
• “Describe the steps you used as you did this…”
• “Let’s compare what you described and did to the success criteria or rubric…”

 

 

four: Feed FORWARD – “Let’s define the next steps in this journey?” (Examples: scaffolding; neither positive or negative, rather a definition of what the next steps are)

• “This is where you are and this is what you will learn next…”
• “What do you think are the next steps in getting better at this?”
• “As you get better at this, here are some specific things to do…”
• Repeat or restate what the student says – leading to extended conversation. Hattie (2023 p. 322)

 

 

 

PRINCIPLES of FEED FORWARD

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1.Focus on the Future: Unlike traditional feedback that may dwell on past mistakes, feedforward aims to provide actionable suggestions for future behavior. For example, instead of saying, “You spoke too quickly in the last meeting,” you might say, “Next time, try pausing between points to enhance clarity”

2. Be Specific: Provide clear and specific suggestions that relate directly to the individual’s role or tasks. This specificity helps the recipient understand exactly what they can do differently and why it matters.

3. Encourage a Reality Mindset: Start by acknowledging and objectively define what the individual is doing. Define “where they are at on the journey.” It is not positive or negative, it just is reality. The focus is on helping them know the next steps.  “This is what you can do to make progress…keep at it and you will accomplish this soon.”

4. Create a Culture of Feedback:

Encourage regular feedforward sessions within your team or organization. This normalization of feedback helps reduce anxiety around receiving it and promotes ongoing growth.

Feedforward is a powerful tool for enhancing performance and fostering a supportive work environment. By focusing on future possibilities rather than past shortcomings, it empowers individuals to take actionable steps toward improvement while maintaining a positive outlook on their professional development. Duncan (2007)

 

 

 

Teaching Students What to Ask During Feedback

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• Where have I done well?

 

• What do I need to improve?

 

• How can I improve?

 

• What can I do next time? Mandouit (2020)

 

 

 

 

HOW TO

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• Focus on effort not just talent

 

• Be as specific as possible

 

• Feed forward whenever possible

 

• Address the learners advancement toward a goal

 

• Teach students to give quality feedback

 

• Utilize rubrics

 

• Provide one-on-one feedback

 

• Explain feedback clearly

 

• Timeliness

 

• Specific expectations

 

• Open-ended questions. Hattie (2016)

 

 

 

“MESSY MARKING”

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Whole Class Writing feedback for revision and editing:

• Students double-space;
• No notes on student papers;
• “messy marking” teacher thoughts;
• Define 1-2 whole class instruction focus areas the next day
• Students make changes in extra spaces and/or with colored pencils Dixon Video

 

 

 

ISSUES with PRAISE, REWARDS & POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

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• Evaluative and judgmental – “I really like the way you did this” is still judgmental and put the ‘power’ in the hands of adult. What does it feel like to be judged?

 

• Dependency – “What will I get for doing this…” the reinforcement works so well they will only do the task if they get rewarded, and then the rewards need to increase to get the same result.

 

• Devaluation & Non-contingent reinforcement – “What does good job mean?” Praise comes across as meaningless and insincere. Did you ever notice that students rarely if after respond to the praise statement.

 

• Reduces Self-Esteem: While increases “Other-Esteem” – “I’m good if someone tells me I’m good.” Produces students who judge themselves based on the view of other and reduces Self – Esteem.

 

• Fixed Mindset: Students begin to define themselves based on the judgements and evaluations of others. It creates a fixed mindset – “I’ve never been good at math…”

 

• Create rivalry and competition: When students hear other students get praise or rewards they judge themselves ‘less-than” and/or it creates rivalry, jealousy, and competition.Using praise to manipulate behavior in front of others can create an unsafe, competitive environment.  Look at the impact of sibling rivalry.

 

• Predominant Model – This is the predominant model of communicating feedback and it does not work. If it did students would have higher self-esteem, better grades, and improved academic achievement – do they? We invented behaviorism; it is the filter upon which we build teaching / learning. Kohn (1999)

 

 

 

Alternative to Praise Statements (like ‘good job’) – Six ENCOURAGEMENT strategies

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• They teach you – “teach me how you did that…show me how you did that…show me so I can try…tell me what are steps?” Be a partner in their learning.

 

• Repeat – repeat back what the student says when asked about his/her. By repeating it shows you are listening and you care. It also leads to more conversation.

 

• Restate – almost the same as repeating, but with restating you add more meaning and you change the language of what they said. It again, is a good conversation starter and leads to discussion and analysis.

 

• Be specific and descriptive – “I noticed you did this, then this…” describe what the student did. Then ask clarifying questions; “tell me more about how and why?”

 

• Ask an Open-Ended Question – “tell me what you have been doing…or thinking”. Often good to repeat back or restate what they said. This question is a bridge to reflection and analysis.

 

• Goal & Choices – Encourage the student to plan ahead and establish a goal. “what is your next step? What do you want to accomplish next?” Establishing goals and choices lead to intrinsic motivation. Kohn (1999)

 

 

 

CHALLENGES

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• Individualized feedback on multiple tasks can consume significant time.

 

• Students may ignore or minimally engage with comments.

 

• When there is no follow-up conversation or revision opportunity, students can perceive feedback as irrelevant “post-mortem” commentary.

 

• Feedback that is too vague (“good job,” “needs work”).

 

• Overly detailed feedback that covers many issues at once can overwhelm students.

 

• Overly soft or purely positive feedback that avoids necessary critique.

 

• Many students lack the metacognitive skills to interpret feedback.  link

 

 

 

WHAT NOT TO DO

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• Do not cover every possible issue at once.

 

• Avoid vague remarks like “be more clear” or “good job”; students need specific information about what worked and what to do next.

 

• Do not assume a score plus a few comments is effective feedback; many students look only at the grade and disregard the rest.

 

• Do not cover work in red corrections or focus solely on what’s wrong; heavily negative feedback discourages students and makes improvement feel unattainable.

 

• Avoid commenting only on the final product (right/wrong, score) without addressing process or strategies.

 

• Do not “fire” comments at students without chances to respond, ask questions, or set goals.

 

• Avoid giving feedback once and moving on; without follow‑up opportunities to apply it, even good feedback has little impact.

 

• Do not make comments that feel personal (“you’re careless,” “you’re not trying”); feedback should describe the work and the next step, not the student’s character.

 

• Avoid a one‑size‑fits‑all tone and format; different students need different levels of directness, support, and modality (written, verbal, conferencing) to use feedback productively.  link