Written Feedback - When is it worth it? - Evidence Based Education

Published On: July 1, 20264 min read

By Kate Jones

I trained to become a teacher in 2009. At this point, written comments (or marking) were regarded as the sacred evidence of meaningful feedback. I have written previously about poor proxies for effective feedback; you can read that here. Lengthy written comments provided frequently, in a specific pen colour, were for many schools the norm and expectation. I can recall teaching in Wales where written comments were to be visible in all class books in English alongside generic praise in Welsh (although many teachers and students could not speak Welsh!).

There are several problems with written feedback:

Time-consuming for teachers (regardless of age, key stage or subject)
Workload heavy (linked to the previous point)
Repetitive in nature, as similar mistakes and misconceptions often occur
Written feedback does not provide evidence of learning; the progress students make is the evidence of effective feedback.

There are also some very important questions to consider when providing written feedback to learners:

Are students actually reading the written comments?
If they do read the written feedback, do they understand it?
Do the students have time and an opportunity to act on that feedback?

However, despite the problems posed with written feedback, there can be a time and place for it. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) published a Feedback Guidance Report in 2021. The report includes a dedicated section to written feedback. The report pointed out,

“It is worth noting that written comments can be effective and should not be rejected by teachers because of the opportunity cost associated.”

When should teachers consider providing written feedback?

Written feedback can be valuable when learners require a written record they can return to (students could summarise teacher verbal feedback into a written comment in the margin or on a post it note). There are also occasions where individual feedback is required, for example, after an end-of-unit test or summative assessment, or when misconceptions are highly individual rather than widespread. If a teacher is reviewing students’ work outside of a lesson, written feedback is an option to record feedback for the student to engage within the next lesson.

Below are two concrete methods of written feedback that are not as time-consuming as lengthy written comments and are actionable for the learner.

Selective Marking – This is an approach where the teacher selects a section of student work to provide focused feedback with written comments. This idea is often referred to as the ‘Yellow Box Method’, devised by staff at the George Spencer Academy in England and promoted by author Ross Morrison-McGill. Teachers select a section of text to provide feedback. Students then engage with that feedback, rewriting only the dedicated section in the yellow box rather than the entire essay or response.

Marking codes – Marking codes (abbreviations such as Sp to represent a spelling error) have become common practice in many schools, as they enable the teacher to support students in a quick and workload-friendly way. Marking codes can be used across a whole school to support consistency and student familiarity across phases or subjects. The marking codes can be literacy-focused or subject-specific. To ensure marking codes are effective, students should be expected to act on the codes by adjusting and making improvements to their work. Teachers should use their professional judgement to decide which codes to use on class work. A student might make a lot of errors, so the teacher can prioritise which targets the learner should focus upon. Marking codes can be assigned live in a lesson or post-lesson when reviewing class work.

Schools should be cautious about policies that equate written comments with effective feedback. The evidence reminds us that feedback only has an impact when students engage with it and act upon it. Written feedback can play a role in this process, particularly when it is focused and purposeful. However, sustainable improvement comes from ensuring that feedback, in whatever form it takes, leads to better thinking and better work.

Want to understand how feedback is really experienced in your classroom?

The Great Teaching Toolkit’s 360° feedback brings together student surveys, peer feedback and teacher self-reflection to help teachers see their practice from multiple perspectives and identify areas for improvement.