Best Practice

Feedback for learning: Getting the marking balance right

Pedagogy Marking & Feedback Pupil Attainment & Progress Lesson planning
Effective feedback is vital to student progress, but we must also balance staff workload and allow time for planning lessons and creating resources. Clare Duffy discusses how her school is creating a feedback for learning culture

 Feedback for learning is undoubtedly a crucial element of the teaching toolkit. It is fundamental in improving student outcomes and in allowing students to develop their understanding.

However, feedback is itself a controversial subject. What is good feedback? How much value does it really add? And how do we get the marking balance right considering other demands on a teacher’s time?

 

The relationship between feedback, assessment, and data

Before exploring what makes good feedback it is important to reflect on the purpose of assessment in the first place. After all, there is little point giving feedback on a flawed assessment that doesn’t accurately assess what the student has been learning.

Clare Sealy succinctly summarises assessment as “the process of doing something in order to find something out and then doing something as a result of having that information” and that essentially “assessment is a set of tools, not an end in itself” (Sealy, 2022).

If we accept this definition, then giving good feedback is a crucial step in the cyclical process of learners improving.

Before the cycle begins teachers should be asking the question: what are we trying to find out and what will we do differently as a result of having this information? This is where formative assessment can be used to guide further learning.

Leaders also need to be mindful of the impact on staff workload which excessive feedback can create. Many schools have moved away from an extensive use of internal data, a welcome change in light of Ofsted’s focus on how students progress through the curriculum rather than on the internal data of small sub-groups.

As the chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said: “I want school leaders to discuss with our inspectors what they expect pupils to know by certain points in their life, and how they know it. And crucially, what the school does when it finds out they don’t.” (Ofsted, 2018)

Indeed, the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit cites feedback as having very high impact for very low cost, adding more than six months of progress across a year.

This all exemplifies the importance of good feedback as part of a teacher’s toolkit for developing learners. However, school leaders need to be conscious of the opportunity cost of this feedback and work to develop a sensible marking balance for staff, allowing time to also plan lessons and create resources.

 

Building a feedback for learning culture

If schools want to get feedback for learning right, then it is imperative that the correct culture is created for both teachers and students. Effective feedback strategies do not happen quickly, and they need time to embed and become habitual.

In my school it has been a slow and steady process over the last seven years, beginning with our involvement in the SSAT’s Embedding Formative Assessment project (led by Professor Dylan Wiliam) in 2015 and culminating in our current practice whereby CPD time is allocated to departments to work on creating feedback for learning resources and, crucially, integrating these resources into curriculum plans.

For feedback for learning to have an impact it needs to feed into adaptive teaching and inform future planning – essentially teachers “doing something different” in response to assessment information.

Students also need practice in responding to feedback, both in how to reflect and improve and how to effectively self-assess or peer-assess.

 

Feedback for learning toolkit

At its core formative assessment works best when it is as instant and precise as possible, providing small nudges which the student understands and can act on to improve their learning.

Below are some effective forms of feedback a teacher can use which are quick, often instant, and help move students forward in their learning.

It is worth noting that for these to be successful, clear modelling and sharing of success criteria prior to the student completing the task is required so that they know what excellence looks like.

Likewise, it is vital that students are given the time to reflect and respond to feedback otherwise it is a wasted opportunity.

 

Whole class feedback: You do not write on a student’s work but instead as you read your class’s work you make a note of common misconceptions, unfinished tasks, elements worth praising and turn these into a whole class feed forward sheet with areas for students to improve on.

 

Code marking: Create a numbered bank of “what went well” and “even better if” statements and as you mark a student’s work you write these numbers at the relevant sections. These codes are shared with students when you hand the work back and they have time to copy out the codes and act on the feedback.

 

Self/peer-assessment and verbal feedback: For this strategy to be successful it is vital to train students in how to effectively assess through careful scaffolding of success criteria and checking for understanding. Investing time in creating a collaborative learning environment in your classroom helps here. Give students a checklist of things their work should include and allow them to mark it themselves or for each other. You can also provide “what went well” and “even better if” statements for them to use. Verbal feedback is similar and can be students verbally assessing each other or it can be the teacher giving feedback as they circulate the room.

 

Questioning: Cold-calling students to answer in class, with no hands up, is an effective way of ensuring all learners are engaged and for the teacher to routinely check for understanding, feeding back as needed. This process can be improved by offering students thinking time (think, pair, share is a good technique) and then developing answers with probing questions. Hinge questions which test understanding of a key concept are also useful for teachers to use as an instant way of checking for understanding and determining the next stage of the lesson (they usually come at around the mid-point of a lesson).

 

Quizzing and retrieval tasks: This involves students thinking hard about what they have learnt and what they can recall. In this way, low-stakes tests like quizzing can be a “strategy for learning in addition to being an assessment of learning” (Perry et al, 2021). There are lots of online platforms which can create quizzes for teachers, saving time and allowing for instant feedback for learners. Using resources such as knowledge organisers and then testing students can also be effective. The key element here is for the testing to be low-stakes and frequent so that students get repeated practice and do not worry about making mistakes.

 

Section marking: Students highlight a section of their work that they want the teacher to mark meaning feedback is quicker and more focused. This can be a section the student particularly struggled with.

 

Technical accuracy: Develop a whole-school literacy approach so that all subjects focus on accuracy and students are expected to self-check and regulate their books at set intervals using a student checklist. This frees up teachers’ time, allowing them to mark other areas of focus.

 

Whole school guidance: To support teachers in using a range of effective feedback for learning strategies, leaders need to create a clear and sensible whole school policy. The EEF recommends that “policies should not over-specify features such as the frequency or method of feedback” (Collin & Quigley, 2021). A good policy should allow for subject variation and include the following elements:

  • Discuss the foundations for effective feedback (e.g. a focus on high quality instruction).
  • Explain what good feedback is.
  • Explore how to time feedback appropriately.
  • Plan how students will respond to feedback.

A parent version answering FAQs is also useful. A brief overview of the research and the school’s feedback for learning rationale, along with examples of feedback for learning, can help to avoid the unrealistic expectation of seeing every piece of their child’s work written on.

  

Final thoughts

The purpose of feedback needs to be known before a task is started and teachers must ensure they then act on what the feedback tells them. This may be adapting how a topic is taught, revisiting a key concept, or re-writing a scheme of learning.

Feedback is vastly important but be mindful of opportunity cost. Leaders need to show staff the benefit of different methods of feedback for learning which can save time and be more effective in moving learners forward.

For some staff though, traditional marking of every piece of work can be a hard habit to break and this needs a supportive senior leadership team with a culture of trust and a desire to address the work/life balance.

There is a wide range of feedback for learning strategies teachers can use and these should be adapted to suit the needs of each learner or class. Effective teaching draws on a toolkit of these strategies.

Finally, share the why and the how of your feedback for learning approach. Be transparent with staff and parents so that expectations are well managed.

  • Clare Duffy is deputy principal (teaching and learning and CPD) at Uppingham Community College in Rutland. Follow her on Twitter @ClareHDuffy

  

Further information and resources