EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
Frequent/
Timely
The Framework for Improving
Teaching and Learning
Expectations:
Feedback on student work is frequent.
Instruction:
 Feedback is regular and
on-going.
 Students articulate goals and
evaluate progress.
 Students have access to personal
progress.
Specific
Evidence of Student Learning:
Communication to parents and
community about individual student
progress exists in relation to goals.
Expectations:
Feedback on student work is specific.
The Skillful Teacher
Another factor that obstructs learning
and contaminates most classroom
climates is the belief that “good
students do it by themselves,” instead
of the belief that what makes good
students is that they solicit help and
lots of feedback on their work. (p.
373)
Feedback has maximum
communicative effect when it is both
full and specific. (p. 247)
Instruction:
A feedback loop exists about adequacy
and effectiveness of instructional
materials.
Teacher Expectation Student
Achievement
 Effective feedback should be
timely and direct for all learners.
Classroom Instruction
That Works
 Timely feedback appears to be
critical to its effectiveness. (p. 97)
 Feedback given immediately after a
test-like situation is best. (p. 97)
 Effective feedback should provide
appropriate guidance to enhance
achievement.
 Feedback should be informative,
varied and credible.
 Feedback should be corrective in
nature. Provide students with an
explanation of what they are doing
that is correct and what they are
doing that is not correct. (p. 96)
 The best feedback appears to
involve an explanation as to what is
accurate and inaccurate in terms of
student responses. (p. 96)
 Provide students with feedback in
terms of specific levels of
knowledge and skill. (p. 99)
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Respectful
Instructional
The Framework for
Improving Teaching and
Learning
Expectations:
 Feedback on student work
is respectful.
 Student self-evaluation and
goal setting exist.
 There is a language of
giving help.
 The Key Messages
Instruction:
 Students provide nonjudgmental feedback to
their peers.
Evidence of Student Learning:
 Self-monitoring and goal
setting are apparent.
 Teachers communicate
that, with effort, students
can achieve these rigorous
goals.
Expectations:
 Feedback on student work
is instructional.
 There are provisions for reteaching and extra help.
 Language of response to
errors or below-standard
work/improvement or
above standard work
reflects this.
 There are opportunities for
reciprocal feedback.
Instruction:
 Students describe areas of
mastery and areas of need.
 Students can articulate
The Skillful Teacher
 It is argued that full and
complete feedback is a
form of respect by which
teachers show students they
value students’ work
enough to look at it closely.
(p. 247)
Teacher Expectation
Student Achievement
Classroom Instruction
That Works
 Corrective feedback should
encourage positive selftalk, self-image and goal
setting.
 Simply telling students that
their answer on a test is right or
wrong has a negative effect on
achievement. (p. 96)
 Corrective feedback should
promote reflective dialog.
 Asking students to stay on task
until they succeed appears to
enhance achievement. (p. 96)
 Feedback on student work
can send “I believe in you”
messages in three
circumstances: unmet
expectations, students
doing well and significant
change in performance. (p.
316)
 Reflective listening feeds
back to speakers the
content of their remarks
and thus confirms to them
that they have been heard.
Active listening adds a
feeling component to the
feedback, and the listener
restates or infers the feeling
state of the speaker aloud.
(p. 349)
 Teachers can claim they’re
using knowledge of results
if they’re giving students
feedback about how they
did very soon after they
perform, along with an
opportunity to self-correct
or at least see what would
have to be done to
improve. (p.247)
 The knowledge base tells
us that verbal
reinforcement should be
precise, appropriate, and
when appropriate,
scheduled from regular to
intermittent. (p.248)
 When it comes to work, the
 Giving a test one day after a
learning situation seems to be
optimal. (p. 98)
 Effective feedback should
connect abstract concepts.
 Effective feedback should
link learning to new
experiences.
 Teachers should model
corrective feedback by
demonstrating how to
correct a mistake in order
that students develop selfcorrection skills.
 Self-regulating skills
ensure that students
become self-directed and
not dependent upon others.
 Provide students with feedback
that is relative to how well they
are doing. (p.96)
 The simplest prescription for
improving education is “dollops
of feedback.” (p. 9)
 Criterion-referenced feedback
(telling students where they
stand relative to a specific
target of knowledge or skill) is
most useful. This is in contrast
to norm referenced feedback
(where students stand in
relation to other students).(p.98)
 Students can effectively
quality work.
 Teachers match
communication of
instructional goals to
students’ needs and
learning styles.
feedback students get about
their products seems
particularly important in
communicating
expectations. (p.299)
 The following important
attributes of this feedback
show up again and again in
interviews with teachers
and students:





Prompt and complete
Detailed
Personal contact
No excuses
Recognizes superior
performance
 Logical consequences for
poor performance
(p. 299-300)
 The importance of
feedback to students being
prompt, detailed, and
sometimes delivered
through personal contact
rather than just in writing if
expectations are to be
communicated clearly. (p.
316)
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 Feedback should focus on
students’ potential to learn,
the value of challenge, and
the use of effort and
learning processes in the
face of obstacles.
monitor their own progress.
(p. 99)
 Adapt generic rubrics to
specific content looking at
information, processes, and
skills. (p. 99)