Marking and Feedback

3 August 2009

Rangitoto College

Facilitated by: Natasha Hemara

n.hemara@auckland .ac.nz

Task One

Feedback Questionnaire

1. Feedback has a significant effect on student achievement. True or false?

2. What feedback do students want?

3. What are the least effective forms of feedback in raising student achievement?

4. What do teenagers believe conveys a positive belief in their aptitude?

(a) a teacher’s criticism

(b) a teacher’s praise

5. Teachers may increase a student’s motivation in competing a task by saying:

(a) “Keep trying, it’s easy”

(b) “That’s very hard. You have to work at it and I will come back and help you.”

6. What kind of feedback do teachers use the most?

(a) Descriptive feedback (about student achievement)

(b) Evaluative feedback (making judgements)

7. Feedback is more likely to improve student learning when it:

(a) Has a grade only

(b) Has a grade and comments

8. How can teachers ensure students read and act on feedback given?

9. What kinds of knowledge does a teacher need to be able to give effective feedback?

10. Which type of feedback is most effective in improving student achievement?

(a) Reminder prompt

(b) Scaffolded prompt

Feedback Questionnaire Answers

1. Feedback has a significant effect on student achievement. True or false?

True. In Hattie’s meta-analysis of 750+ meta-analyses and 50,000 studies feedback is in the top 10 influences on student achievement. Other high ranking influences are: Self report grades, dealing with disruptive students, quality of teaching, reciprocal teaching, prior achievement, teacher-student relationships

2. What feedback do students want?

Not ticks and crosses or corrections, but an explanation of where the student has gone wrong and how they can improve. They want written feedback as well as verbal feedback (Te Kotahitanga, 2003; Rawlins, 2006)

3. What are the least effective forms of feedback in raising student achievement?

Feedback about the self rather than about the learning. General praise such as “good girl!” is ineffective because the student will sift many aspects to determine how much they believe the praise e.g. their relationship with the teacher

4. What do teenagers believe conveys a positive belief in their aptitude?

a. a teacher’s criticism

b. a teacher’s praise

A. Meyer conducted a series of studies where children watched other children receive praise. From 12 years children believed that receiving praise from a teacher was a sign you lacked ability and needed extra encouragement.

5. Teachers may increase a student’s motivation in competing a task by saying:

a. “Keep trying, it’s easy”

b. “That’s very hard. You have to work at it and I will come back and help you.”

B. If students believe the task is easy and they can’t do it, they are likely to attribute failure to a lack of ability, lose motivation and become depressed. If they believe that it is hard, but with persistence (and scaffolding by the teacher) they can succeed, they are more likely to increase effort (Weiner, 1985).

6. What kind of feedback do teachers use the most?

(a) Descriptive feedback (about student achievement)

(b) Evaluative feedback (making judgements)

(b) Evaluative feedback. Knight (2003) studied feedback given by six teachers in two primary schools over six lessons in numeracy. Of 349 examples of oral feedback, 83% were evaluative and 61% of written feedback was in the evaluative category.

7. Feedback is more likely to improve student learning when it:

(a) Has a grade only

(b) Has a grade and comments

c Butler (1988) found that student achievement improved when students were given comments but not when given marks or grades. When students are given a mark and a comment, they do not tend to read the comment.

8. How can teachers ensure students read and act on feedback given?

Glenn (2008) required students to respond to feedback by writing a summary of the feedback and detailing what they would address in their next learning. In NCEA these students had consistently higher grades than students who did not process their feedback.

9. What kinds of knowledge does a teacher need to be able to give effective feedback?

Content, curriculum, pedagogical, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of learner, educational contexts and educational aims/purposes (Bell & Cowie, 1997)

10. Which type of feedback is most effective in improving student achievement?

(a) Reminder prompt

(b) Scaffolded prompt

High achieving students use reminder prompts most effectively. Mid-band students respond to scaffolded prompts and low achieving students need example prompts (Clarke, 2005).

Task Two

Assessment

What was thought provoking?
What do you do well? / What could you try/adapt?

Readings

I have a copy of all of the articles on PDF. You can purchase Shirley Clarke’s book from Kohia Teachers Centre. To obtain free copies of BES you can email .

What is your reading?

What were the key points/findings in your reading related to feedback?

Were there any other points that you can use to assist your teaching?

Readings

Feedback from other readi ngs:

Key principles of good feedback

Clarke, Shirley. (2005) Formative Assessment in the Secondary Classroom, p.73.

1. Feedback needs to be focused on the learning objectives and success criteria and not in comparison to other students.

Helping students make connections, see the big picture and establish what they already know.

Key Questions:

· What do I want my students to learn?

· How will I, and my students, know that they have met the learning intention?

· What feedback do I need to ensure is provided for them to progress towards the learning intention?

· What opportunities can I provide for students to evaluate their own progress and act on feedback?

Success Criteria or Learning Intention?

Students / What am I going to learn? / Learning Intention
How will I know that I have been successful in learning? / Success Criteria
Teacher / What knowledge understandings or skills do I want my students to learn? / Learning intention
How will I know that my students have been successful in their learning / Success Criteria
Think about a lesson that you have taught recently.
Questions / My ideas
What did you want your students to learn?
Write down the specific learning intentions, be sure to include all of the skills and knowledge you wanted them to learn.
Were you clear about this – in your own mind before the lesson?
Did you tell the students what they were going to learn?
What activities did you plan in order to find out whether or not the students learnt what you wanted them to?
Do you know whether or not they did in fact learn these things? Why/Why not?
So what are the implications for my teaching?
Questions / My ideas
What do you want your students to learn?
Write down the specific learning intentions, be sure to include all of the skills and knowledge you wanted them to learn.
When will you tell the students what they are going to learn?
What reason will you give the students to explain why you want them to learn these things?
What will be the context within which you want them to learn?
What activities will you plan in order to find out whether or not the students learnt what you want them to?

Glasson, Toni. (2009) Improving student achievement, a practical guide to assessment for learning.

2. We need to give specific feedback focusing on success and improvement rather than correction.

In Physical Education the majority of the feedback we give is oral. As research suggests we should be focusing on success and improvement. The way in which we question students is of great importance.

Closed questions vs open questions

closed / · Seek a specific response
· Who, When, What? Where?
· Recall of information
· They do not seek to discover how or why students arrived at a particular answer. / A PE example…
open / · Do not assume a specific response
· Ask students to engage in higher- order thinking skills eg analysis, synthesis, evaluation and application / A PE example…

Practical Ideas:

· Turn to your partner

· Think /Pair/Share

· Discussion Lines/Speed dating

· Hands Down – works well will Think time

· Prompting Questions – see Examples given

KEY points – Students need to be encouraged to ask questions, students need help to be good listeners

3. We need to focus improvement suggestions on closing the gap between current and desired performance.

“Close the gap” feedback prompts – from Shirley Clarke*

Type of prompt / Most suitable for … / Example
Reminder prompt / Higher attaining students / Remember When
Remember What
Remember Where
Remember How
A good referee should be ……….
Scaffold prompt / Most students as it provides more structure to improve the work / 1. A question.
Can you explain what a good referee does?
2. A directive.
Demonstrate /describe some of the key aspects of what a good referee does.
Example prompt / Lower attaining students / Remember when we looked at the video of what a good referee looks like, can you tell give me an example of the things that they did which made them more effective.

A specific physical education example………..

Type of prompt / Most suitable for … / Example
Reminder prompt / Higher attaining students
Scaffold prompt / Most students as it provides more structure to improve the work
Example prompt / Lower attaining students

4. Students need opportunities to make improvements on their work.

5. We need to train students to effectively self and peer assess their work.

Reciprocal learning involves working and providing feedback to a partner, based on criteria prepared by the teacher.

For more information about Mosston's spectrum of teaching styles

Please see: http://www.tki.org.nz/r/health/sport_studies/approaches/index_e.php

Self Assessment Strategies

· Traffic Lights

· Thumbometer

· Prompts – sentence openers displayed around the room/gym

· Reflective Questions (dice example)

· KWL/KWHL Grids

Peer Assessment Strategies (feedback is always related to the success criteria)

· Model peer feedback

· Plus Minus and Whats next?

· Warm and cool feedback – the advice for improvement is how to raise the temperature.

· Traffic lights – using green and amber lights

· Using models and exemplars

· De Bonos Hats – have to be modelled well before use, allow for thinking from different perspectives

· Writing buddies/Editing partners

· Peer feedback using a rubric

· Peer feedback using a checklist

· Two positives and a question