The value of feedback

Appropriate and timely feedback has a positive impact on students':

• attitude
• engagement
• motivation
• behaviour
• learning
• sense of achievement.

Effective feedback provides the student with information on:

• where they are going (their goal)
• how they are going
• where to go next.

The feedback you give your student should be meaningful, timely and communicated effectively. Quality feedback is completely objective. As Wiggins (1998) states, "Feedback is not about praise or blame, approval or disapproval. That’s what evaluation is – placing value. Feedback is value-neutral. It describes what you did and did not do.”

Types of feedback

Descriptive encouraging

Descriptive encouraging is a process of describing exactly what you can see or hear from a student that you hope to see more frequently, thereby highlighting their competence and abilities. This can sound like, "I can hear most people using their inside voice for group work" or "I like that you keep asking questions when you're unsure to clarify your understanding." By acknowledging positive student behaviours, you provide feedback that the behaviour is desired and increase the likelihood of it occurring again.

Instructional

Instructional feedback focuses on a cycle of cue, student action, and teacher feedback. The teacher provides a cue for learning or behaviour (e.g., "When we do group work we use soft voices"), followed by a student action, and then teacher feedback in response (e.g., "Let's soften those voices just a bit more so we don't disturb others"). Instructional feedback may curb challenging behaviours and increase learner engagement.

Remember

• Know and take into account the abilities, characteristics, and preferences of each student. This will make your feedback personalised and positive.
• Identify one aspect of the task or behaviour that the student has done well, and one that could be done better or differently.
• Pair feedback with a reinforcer such as a high-five, handshake, personal message or token.
• Feedback can also be non-verbal - from a simple thumbs up to using a visual reward chart. 

Before you start

• Reflect on and review your instructional and feedback procedures, together with communication/interaction styles, to see what you would like to focus on.
• Develop and plan responsive and flexible feedback procedures appropriate to each lesson/topic that
  • is more frequent 
  • provides highly specific guidance
  • provides specific feedback
  • provides specific rewards.
• Consider if you would like to set up a token economy. A token economy is a system designed to reinforce desirable behaviour and learning. Tokens are small rewards that can be used to motivate students during less-preferred tasks and activities.

Prior to the lesson choose, prepare and implement supporting visual resources such as

• positively worded classroom rules
• cumulative reward systems 
• written instructional sequence/lesson plan formats

It works better if:

• Visual supports such as positive behaviour rules, cumulative reward systems schedules, and lesson plans are in place and used as reference points for guidance and feedback.
• You focus on specific outcomes and expectation.  
• You give feedback that is non-evaluative, immediate, enthusiastic, and varied. 
• You accompany it with highly motivating reinforcers/rewards.

It doesn’t work if:

• There are no visual behaviour rules or visual learning supports in place.
• Learning-based behaviour expectations are inconsistent.
• Feedback is not linked to the immediate task.
• Feedback focuses only on errors, offers no solutions, is negative or unvaried.
• Reward systems are unmotivating or are used to deduct points/rewards previously earned.