General principles for effective feedback
What makes good feedback? A general framework for best practice.
Overview
Feedback gives students the opportunity to gauge their progress and adjust their practices to better meet a learning objective. At the same time, it allows teachers to evaluate students' understanding, identify errors, and make decisions around teaching practice. Good feedback is more than just positive or negative comments. It needs to give the learner an idea of what their next steps could be and a chance to reflect on how they will achieve progress.
Giving feedback, whether it be in class or on formal assessment tasks, has a very powerful effect on learning outcomes. Feedback goes beyond simple grading, although students and teachers tend to conflate feedback and graded assessment as the same thing (Winstone and Boud 2022). However, whilst assessment usually serves as summative, end-point 'certification' of what students have learned, feedback is more intrinsic to the whole learning journey. Hattie and Timperley (2007) suggest that feedback is just one step in a three-part learning experience:
- Feed up: Where am I going? What are the goals?
- Feedback: How am I going? What progress is being made to these goals?
- Feed forward: Where next? What do I need to do to make more progress?
Facilitating effective feedback and, just as importantly, having it received and understood, is therefore central to the role of teachers. So, what approaches can assist with this? Depending on the context that the feedback is provided, different methods may be applicable. CSHE offers detailed guides on Constructing Effective Assessment Feedback Comments, End of Subject Assessment Tasks and Feedback Opportunities, and Giving and Receiving Good In-Class Feedback.
SMART principles
For a more general framework, the following SMART principles combine the best practices for effective feedback in teaching and learning:
S - Specific: Feedback should be clear and detailed and avoid the use of general statements that leave uncertainty over what is meant.
M - Meaningful: Link the feedback to the learning intentions and objectives of the subject/task so that students can relate what they are being told to given goals and map their progress.
A - Actionable: Provide concrete directions for improvement or pointers towards the next task.
R - Relevant: The feedback must be related to the task’s instructions, weighting and learner level.
T - Timely: Feedback has more value if it is provided in time to support ongoing learning and allow for reflection.
Examples
| EFFECTIVE | LESS EFFECTIVE | |
|---|---|---|
| SPECIFIC | The literature review of this paper is very thorough and demonstrates engagement with the current research on juvenile detention in Australia. | There is some strong work in this paper. |
| MEANINGFUL | The methodology does not address the last two of the task requirements. These are central to the aim of this project that is focused on adolescent health. In future, you could use the requirements like a checklist to make sure the objectives are being met. | You have failed to understand the point of the task. |
| ACTIONABLE | The presentation was very thorough, but for the final assessment, consider how the call to action might be focussed on three key points to simplify decisions for the audience. | The presentation was too wordy and lacked focus. |
| RELEVANT | The essay met the minimum requirement of five supporting references. Consider how this could be expanded in future work so that every point is fully supported. | Referencing was weak and you will need to do better in future. |
| TIMELY | Before the exam, it would be a good idea to go back over Chapter 8 and clarify what is meant by 'Zone of Proximal Development'. | (Received after the exam) You have some catching up to do on the 'Zone of Proximal Development'. |
References
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77 (1), 81–112. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4624888
Henderson, M., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P., Molloy, E., & Mahoney, P. (2019). Conditions that enable effective feedback. Higher Education Research & Development, 38 (7), 1401–1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1657807
Winstone, N. E., & Boud, D. (2020). The need to disentangle assessment and feedback in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 47 (3), 656–667. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1779687