The Importance of Feedback

The Importance of Feedback

In my last post, Teacher Clarity, I promised to take a closer look at the different components of teacher clarity and various methods for providing feedback, along with other high effect-size practices that positively impact student achievement. Much of what I share here comes from John Hattie’s book, Visible Learning for Teachers.

Hattie points out that the aim of feedback is reducing the gap between students’ current abilities and learning goals. With an effect size of .79, the practice of giving students feedback enhances successful learning through all phases of instruction. Feedback achieves great results especially when students make errors or demonstrate a lack of understanding, presenting an opportunity for deeper learning and positive growth.

Students need to know how they’re performing, but feedback can accomplish this goal in many different ways. Some forms of feedback are more beneficial than others, and the optimal time for offering specific feedback should be directly based on each student’s place in the learning process.

Feedback should be personalized and directed toward one student or a small group of students. A study by David Carless (2006) found that most teacher-delivered feedback is directed to the whole class. In these cases, student often don’t listen to or make use of the feedback because they don’t think it applies to them.

Several other studies cited in Hattie’s book suggest that students find teacher feedback less valuable than teachers perceive it to be, often because it’s difficult to understand, confusing, and/or irrelevant. According to these studies, teachers tend to rate their feedback based on the quantity (amount and frequency of feedback) rather than quality (feedback specific to and understood by the learner).

Three Questions

According to Hattie, effective feedback addresses three important questions and operates on four levels. Let’s first look at the questions.

Question 1: Goals (Where am I going?)

Question 2: Progress (How am I getting there?)

Question 3: Consequences (Where next?)

Levels of Feedback

Next, let’s look at levels of feedback. The levels correspond to the different stages of learning, from beginning stages through to competency or mastery.

First level of feedback: the task and product level

Second level of feedback: the process for completing a task

Third level of feedback: monitoring student learning

Fourth level of feedback: the “self” level

Providing constructive feedback to individual students, encouraging them to engage in and reflect upon the learning process, leads to positive learning outcomes and achieves results. How the feedback is given matters more than how much feedback is given.

Focused, specific feedback helps students understand learning objectives, choose the best strategies for the task, make course corrections throughout the learning process, monitor their own learning, and determine where to go next.

When combined, effective feedback (with its .79 effect size) and teacher clarity (with its .75 effect size) lead to greater student achievement. These two valuable practices are well worth the effort they require from teachers.