• Question: There seems to be evidence from Paul Hattie, amongst others, that the way teachers provide feedback for pupils has a large impact on their learning. Do you know which methods are best? Individual or whole class? Written or oral?

    Asked by mr braddick to Jessie, Jo, Liz, Lucy, Paul, Yana on 18 Jan 2018.
    • Photo: Jo Taylor

      Jo Taylor answered on 18 Jan 2018:

      Hi there,
      This is not my research area but I would imagine that individual feedback is more effective, since different students would have different areas in which they need to improve. I know that some students prefer oral feedback, as it gives the opportunity for a discussion and clarification, but then there are advantages of written feedback because it is durable and the student can come back to it. I guess both might be best! but of course appreciate time limitations.

      Basic theories of learning would also suggest that providing feedback close to when the work was done is more useful than providing feedback at a later date. This is because the student can more easily link the feedback to what they did.

      Although they are designed for higher education students, this site might contain some useful resources:
      https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/developing-engagement-feedback-toolkit-deft

    • Photo: Lucy Cragg

      Lucy Cragg answered on 18 Jan 2018:

      I don’t have much to add to Jo’s answer as it’s not really my area either, but there’s also some relevant information on the education endowment fund website: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/on-marking/

    • Photo: Yana Weinstein

      Yana Weinstein answered on 22 Jan 2018:

      A colleague of mine, Rob Nash, recently co-authored a large review of this literature. A summary of the review can be found here: http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/9/27-1

Comments

  • Photo: mr braddick

    mr braddick commented on :

    Both the Rob Nash/DEFT and education endowment foundation materials are really interesting. The time vs impact for feedback makes this a really important area for teachers, and I hope that some more definitive methods will emerge with more research.