Feedback as an essential

component of assessment
Feedback

Providing students with effective feedback

contributes to learning and achievement.

When teachers provide frequent, constructive and

instructive feedback it can bridge the gap between
current and desired student outcomes.
Feedback is any response regarding a student’s performance or
behavior. It can be verbal, written or gestural.

The purpose of feedback in the assessment and learning process is

to improve a student’s performance - not put a damper on it.

It is essential that the process of providing feedback is a positive,

or at least a neutral, learning experience for the student.
Point to Remember

Negative feedback can discourage student

effort and achievement.
Instructors have the distinct responsibility to
nurture a student’s learning and to provide
feedback in such a manner that the student
does not leave the classroom feeling defeated.
Feedback…
• the information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book,
parent, self, experience) regarding aspects of one's performance or
understanding. Furthermore, this information should reduce the gap
between the current performance and the desired outcomes.”
John Hattie
Feedba • from constructive comments and advice
ck can
be • to behavior, social interactions, and praise.
manifes
ted in
multipl
e forms

• written text,
Also, it
is • verbal comments,
delivere • audio recordings,
d via
multipl • images, and so forth.
e
channel
s:
By addressing the discrepancy between “what is known” and “what should be
known”, feedback promotes effective teaching and learning in the sense that:

It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear
guidance on how to improve their learning.

It strengthens the classroom communication between teachers and students

Feedback can improve a student's confidence, self-awareness and enthusiasm

for learning, leading to enhanced retention
The three feedback questions

Feedback is useful when it reduces the gap between where the student is and where they are
meant to be.

Feedback should therefore be useful when it helps students navigate this gap, by addressing 3
fundamental feedback questions including

“Where am I going?”,

“How am I going?”, and

“Where to next?”

Where am I going? - The feedback
should inform teachers and students
about the attainment of learning
goals.
How am I going? - This entails feedback
relative to student progress and is often
expressed in relation to some expected
standard, to prior performance, and/or to
success or failure on a specific part of the
task.

Where to next? - Feedback can assist learners in

choosing the next most appropriate challenges,
enabling more self-regulation over the learning
process, as well as developing different strategies to
work on the tasks.
The main purpose to provide feedback to the students
is:

To give logical justification to students about marks and grades scored by them

To acknowledge specific qualities in student work

To suggest the students certain steps to take to improve

To motivate them to act on their learning and assessment

To develop students capability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning
Chappuis (2012) describes 3 conditions, regardless of
the form of feedback, that needs to be in place before
offering feedback:
• students need a clear vision of the intended learning
• instructional activities need to align directly with the intended
learning and students need to see that connection
• assessments need to be set up so that students can interpret the
results as indicators of what they have or have not yet learned.
 Oral

peer Written

Types of
feedback
Evaluative Informal

Descriptive formal
Oral feedback and Written Feedback
Oral feedback is usually given during a lesson
while written feedback tends to be given after
a task.
Oral feedback is sometimes underestimated
because it is less formal, but it can be a very
powerful and effective tool as it can be
provided easily in the ‘teachable moment’
and in a timely way.
Asking students 'What do you notice about
______?' or 'How does this match the
criteria?' stimulates their thinking about their
learning.
Effective written feedback provides students
with a record of what they are doing well,
what needs improvement and suggested next
steps.
Effective written feedback also needs to be
timely, written in a manner that is
understandable to the student and actionable
so that the student can make revisions.
Written feedback needs to include
information about where the student has met
the learning intentions and/or success criteria
and where improvement is still required.
Evaluative and Descriptive Feedback
• Evaluative feedback, in the
form of grades or brief general
comments, for example 'well
done', provides some information
about learning, but does not
convey the information and
guidance that students can use to
improve.
Descriptive feedback provides students
with detailed, specific information about
improving their learning.
An example of descriptive feedback is:
'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?'
Informal and Formal Feedback
• Informal check-ins can be used to • Formal feedback is often written
see how students are progressing or a combination of oral and
and usually occur during the written, and usually occurs at the
learning. end of a task to evaluate the
• ‘Check ins’ are considered informal learning outcomes.
and are vitally important to
providing effective feedback. They:
• occur when the teacher visits students
as they are engaged in a task to make
sure they are on the right track
• can quickly and effectively steer
students in the right direction and
enhance learning.
Self and Peer Feedback
• Peer feedback occurs when
students offer each other advice
and suggestions in relation to
each other’s work.
• Self-feedback must be taught
explicitly to ensure students have
the skills to apply this to their
own work.
Teacher Role in Peer feedback
use scaffolds
like peer
hold students
explicitly feedback
model and accountable
teach students forms, which
role-play how for the
how to can be
to give comments,
provide checked by
feedback in a suggestions
effective the teacher to
constructive and feedback
feedback to provide more
way they give one
each other structure to
another
peer
conferences.
Teachers Role in Self- Feedback

explicitly teach
identify, students
model the
share and provide guided how to use allow time
application
clarify opportunities feedback to for self-
of criteria
learning for self- determine feedback/re
using feedback
goals and the next flection.
samples
success steps and
criteria set goals