Feedback for Learning

Author: Arlene Vinion Dubiel

I read the seminal article “Assessment and Classroom Learning” by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam many years ago. This lengthy meta-analysis references 250 articles and identifies what works to improve student learning. I read the article carefully, took notes, and considered how I could adjust my teaching and assessment practices to support students’ learning. From all of this work, the conclusion is that two critical assessment features improve student learning: 1) formative assessment and 2) feedback. 

Formative assessment is simply any assessment for which the results will be used to inform instruction. In the road trip analogy of assessment, formative assessments are the signs along the way to indicate you and your students are heading in the right direction. Formative assessments take many different forms: exit tickets, quizzes, rough drafts of written assignments, prototypes for projects, and more. Whenever you have evidence of students learning, it can be used as a formative assessment. Even the summative test results can be used to see areas of strengths and weaknesses to inform the teaching of future classes. 

Feedback as a formative assessment

Feedback is communication. It communicates where students are with respect to learning expectations. With this broad definition, feedback can be a simple letter or number grade, marks on a rubric, or written comments. When the feedback can be used to improve student performance, then the feedback is formative. One purpose of formative feedback is to improve the work. This is often seen with writing. A student creates a rough draft, and the teacher or peers edit it. Grammar and spelling are corrected, questions are raised when a point is unclear, and the extent to which the writing adheres to expectations is described. The student can then take this feedback and improve the next draft. 

The other purpose of formative feedback is to improve the student. Feedback can be given on current work to improve tasks that students have not yet attempted. For example, when there’s incorrect usage of ‘there’ within a written passage, it could be an opportunity to explain the different spellings and meanings. Teaching how to write the phrase “they’re over there with their car” can help students know which homophone to use the next time they write.  

An essential part of formative feedback is providing students with the opportunity to use the feedback. One option is to allow students to revise or re-do the same task. My daughter’s Algebra 2 teacher allows retakes of any quiz or test. Incorrect items are indicated, and sometimes a comment of where to look for help is in the notes. Students can study their mistakes and then correct them. Another opportunity is to use formative feedback for a future task. In my assessment class, many small assignments receive extensive comments. It’s expected that these comments are used to improve similar tasks found on the end-of-semester summative project. The opportunity to use the given feedback is what makes it formative and most useful for students. 

Comments, not grades

Grades are an easy way to communicate with students on where they are concerning standards. With a simple letter or number, students can know where they are in relation to a benchmark. Students who have an ego-orientation to learning measure themselves by the grades they receive. Students who get good grades feel good about themselves. On the other hand, students who receive poor grades usually see themselves as poor learners. This dichotomy is essential when we consider how to let students know where they are in their learning. 

In a well-controlled experiment published in 1988, Ruth Butler found that comments, rather than grades, improved student learning. When you give students a pre-test and then share only their grades, there’s no gain in the post-test scores. The students who score high have a positive attitude, while those who score poorly have a negative attitude about their performance. But when students are given comments without grades, not only is there a gain in post-test scores, but students have a positive attitude, regardless of their initial performance. The bottom line is that grades promote an ego orientation to learning while comments promote a learning orientation.

Elements of good feedback

“If you want to truly improve student learning, provide students with task-specific feedback on their performance.”

There is a caveat in providing comments. The comments must not contribute to an ego orientation. Words like “good job” or “you need to work harder” do not improve performance. Instead, these comments affirm what students already believe about themselves: that they are good or poor students. Instead, comments need to be specific and focus on the assessment evidence. Praise should be used sparingly, but if you want to praise a student, be specific and make sure it is related to the task. A comment like “good use of the correct spelling of there” could encourage positive behaviors. 

In his master’s thesis in 2003, J.B. Nyquist analyzed over 60 articles on feedback and student learning, looked for patterns, and measured the effectiveness of different types of feedback. Corrective feedback with simple knowledge of correct results did improve learning, particularly when students were able to retake tests with similar questions. When students were given feedback on reducing gaps between current status and learning goals, there was an increased effect. But the highest positive impact on student learning was when students were provided with specific activities to improve their learning. 

To reiterate, if you want to truly improve student learning, provide students with task-specific feedback on their performance. Then, allow them to use that feedback to demonstrate their learning. It sounds simple but can be a challenge. The more you practice, the easier it will be, and the more your students will appreciate the attention and opportunity to improve. 

Give students feedback on formative assessments that focus on task performance. Then, give them the opportunities to use that feedback to demonstrate what they have learned from their past performances and how they can improve their future performances.

References:

Paul Black & Dylan Wiliam (1998) Assessment and Classroom Learning, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5:1, 7-74, DOI: 10.1080/0969595980050102

Butler, R. (1988). Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: The effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology,58(1), 1-14.

Nyquist, J. B. (2003). The benefits of reconstruing feedback as a more extensive system of formative assessment: a meta-analysis. Thesis, M.S. in Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University.

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