Do your students understand your feedback?

Feedback is important, it plays a significant role in student progression and learning. However, there can be several barriers to overcome with feedback. Barriers for teachers can include finding the time to provide feedback to learners and ensuring it is sustainable in terms of workload. A barrier for students could be a lack of understanding about what the feedback means and what they need to do next. It can be tempting to assume students understand the feedback they have received, but this might not always be true.

We know that feedback should be clearly communicated, and the teacher can check for student understanding with the feedback provided. Professor John Hattie (2011) revealed:

“Students often find teachers’ feedback confusing, nonreasoned, and difficult to understand. Sometimes they think they have understood the teacher’s feedback when they have not, and even when they do understand it, they may not know how to use it.”

This is clearly a concern for teachers, because if students don’t understand the feedback provided to them then it is unlikely to have a positive impact on their learning, progress and motivation. Daisy Christodoulou (2017) has also emphasised the importance of pupils understanding feedback:

“I think that for students to engage with feedback and learn from it, it needs to be understandable. They have to understand what the feedback is and that might sound really obvious, but I think a lot of feedback is really hard for people to understand.”

Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, authors of Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (2015), also addressed the importance of understanding feedback. They write,

“Sounds obvious, seems easy. Before you figure out what to do with the feedback, make sure you understand it.”

Furthermore, it is vital to create a classroom culture where learners can seek clarification and ask questions about the feedback, especially if they do not understand it. A study published in 2020 by Agricola, Prins, and Sluijsmans addressed the potential problems with students understanding feedback and suggest the use of feedback request forms and stressed the importance of verbal feedback.

“Organising feedback conversations, in which feedback request forms and verbal feedback are used, is a promising intervention to prevent misunderstanding of written feedback.”

If the learner understands the feedback and knows what they need to do to improve, then the feedback is useful and helpful. Feedback that isn’t helpful can leave students feeling frustrated and stagnating. Below are some tips to ensure that feedback is understood:

• Avoid the “curse of knowledge”, assuming learners possess the same level of knowledge and understanding about success criteria/mark schemes as the teacher. Ensure the feedback is clear and concise. Mark schemes published by examination boards are not created for learners, they are resources to support external examiners and educators.
• Check for understanding, where possible have conversations with students. This can be achieved with one-to-one individuals, in pairs, groups or through whole class feedback.
• Provide actionable feedback, where learners are given time and the opportunity to act on the feedback provided. This will ensure learners are engaging with the feedback and can also be a way of checking they have fully understood the feedback provided.
• Try to notice student responses, from their reaction to non-verbal gestures. Teacher instinct and observations are underrated yet valuable skills.
• Encourage students to ask questions and seek clarification if they are unsure or confused about the feedback.

If learners don’t understand the feedback provided to them then it is highly likely they will continue to repeat errors and mistakes, this will slow down their progress. If we think of learning as being the product of hard thinking, we need to ensure that our students don’t just gloss over the feedback they receive. Their cognition and understanding of feedback is vital for it to have its full potential on student learning.

For more on delivering effective and meaningful feedback to your students, you can download our free eBook here. For professional development opportunities, our Assessment Essentials course dedicates a whole unit of learning to the power and potential of feedback. Try a free sample of the course here.

References:

Agricola, B. T., Prins, F. J., & Sluijsmans, D. M. A. (2020). Impact of feedback request forms and verbal feedback on higher education students’ feedback perception, self-efficacy, and motivation. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 27(1), 6–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2019.1688764

Hattie, J. (2011). From Sutton, R., Hornsey, M.J., & Douglas, K.M. (Eds., 2011), Feedback: The communication of praise, criticism, and advice. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

Heen, S. and Stone, D. (2015). Thanks for the Feedback. The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well Even When It Is Off Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and, Frankly, You’re Not In The Mood.

Hendrick, C., and Macpherson, R. (2017) What Does This Look Like In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice. John Catt Publishing.