Bitesize Research: Effectiveness of Feedback

This week, I wanted to share with you a summary published by the Education Endowment Fund in 2018.

Objectives of study:

To summarise the evidence around the effectiveness of feedback.

Summary of findings:  

• Effective feedback tends to be: 

• specific, accurate and clear (e.g. “It was good because you...” rather than just “correct”)

• compare what a learner is doing right now with what they have done wrong before (e.g. “I can see you were focused on improving X as it is much better than last time’s Y…”)

• encourage and support further effort

• provide specific guidance on how to improve and not just tell students when they are wrong

• Effective feedback can boost progress by up to 8 months and effective AfL can  boost GCSE grades by half a grade per subject per student.

• Feedback can be just as effective if coming from peers as well as adults

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How can I incorporate the qualities of effective feedback into my AfL and marking?

• How can I encourage peer feedback on electronic work? What functionalities of Google classroom could help with this?

If anyone would like to discuss this further with me - please comment below! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.