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and ‘just what I need to help me make progress’

It’s about getting students to identify strategies

As teachers we tend to be more concerned about whether we give feedback rather than whether students receive it.

Feedback is most often accepted when it confirms existing beliefs; where beliefs are challenged, feedback is often rejected If you give feedback to the whole class students think it must be directed at someone else and no one ‘receives’ it. Most feedback is poorly received and not usually acted on Students often find teachers feedback to be “confusing, non-reasoned and not understandable” Even when they do understand, they’re not sure how to apply it to their learning Most feedback is related to tasks rather than processes Most feedback comes from peers and most of that is incorrec

One study found that 70% of teachers felt that they gave detailed formative feedback but only 45% of students agreed with their teachers’ claims.

We also need to be aware that feedback which seems to be critical can often be unwelcome. That’s not to say that we should gloss over obvious mistakes, but we need to present our feedback in a way which affords students the chance to discover for themselves where they went wrong.

This means that instead of saying things like, “You’ve done x, but you should have done y.” I’m saying, “Why have you done x? What else could you have done?” This also helps to move feedback away from the product and onto the process of learning.