Transcript Document

Feedback and
Improvement in
Student Learning
Helen Timperley
Professor of Education
The University of
Auckland
New Zealand
• Auckland
•Wellington
• Christchurch
Overview of Presentation
• Feedback and its power
• Challenges for teachers
• An inquiry and knowledge
building cycle for
improvement
Feedback
• Information provided by someone or
something to a learner about aspects of
performance or understanding
– Feedback follows teaching
– May be seen as new teaching when it fills gap
between what is understood and what is
aimed to be understood
Influences on
Achievement ?
(Hattie, 2009)
0
Decreased
Zero
Enhanced
The typical influence on
achievement (Hattie, 2009)
The typical effect across
•
800+ meta-analysis
•
50,000 studies, and
•
200+ million students
Effect on Achievement over
time?
Typical
Effect
Size
0
Decreased
Zero
.20
.40
1.0
Enhanced
Where feedback fits (Hattie, 2009)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Acceleration (speed up a year)
Feedback
Student-teacher relationships
Teaching study skills
Cooperative learning
Homework
Mentoring
Ability grouping
Retention (hold back a year)
.88
.73
.72
.59
.41
.29
.15
.12
-.16
The Power of Feedback
• Comes from being embedded in strategies
involving:
– Student self-report grades (Rank 1)
– Formative evaluation (Rank 3)
– Teacher clarity (Rank 8)
• But not all feedback promotes student
learning
What feedback
would you give to this student?
(Parr & Timperley, 2010)
• Learning objective: To learn how to
structure a recount (an account of some event
that has occurred)
• Intended audience and purpose: Tell your
friends in an interesting way about a trip
you have been on
– This student wrote about a trip to Sydney and
Brisbane (Australia)
• Write down two pieces of feedback you
would give to this student
Hi I am at home planning my next trip to synedy
and Brisbaned for Christmas and New years
day I am going to stay in syned for a week and I
am going to stay in Brisburnd for a week with
my mum’s flat mate. When I went over to synedy
las time I met rua hes a dog of chris’s. Chris is
one of marys flat mate now last time when I went
there I had to count his money. Then there is nan
she has 3 children one is around 14 years old the
seoncod is 2 years old and the youngst child is
nine mothes old. Then I went to Brisbured. When
I got to Synedy I am going to go to all this fantsey
parks and and I am going to stay in a hotal.
Feedback can be detrimental
• When it does not give information about
how to improve, for example:
– Tentative grades with no comments
– Feedback associated with extrinsic rewards
– Personal praise / criticism that distracts from
the task
You are so clever
My day is boring and I
don’t know what this
assignment is about.
D-
Purpose – to reduce discrepancy
between current understandings and a
desired goal
Ways to reduce the discrepancy
Increase effort or abandon goal
Answers three questions
Where am I going? How am I going?
Where to next?
Task
Process
SelfRegulation
Self
Purpose
To reduce discrepancies between current
understandings / performance and a
desired goal
Key conditions:
1. Students must have a learning goal
• Answers the question, “Where am I
going?
2. Most effective when goals are specific
and challenging but not too difficult
Ways to reduce the discrepancy
•Increase effort using more effective
strategies
•Abandon, blur or lower the goal
Key conditions:
•Teachers work with students to identify
appropriate challenging and specific goals
•Teachers assist students to reach them
through effective learning strategies
“Where to next?”
Where
am I
going?
How
am I
doing?
Where to
Next?
Answers three questions
Where am I going? Goal
How am I going? Feedback
Where to next?
Feed-forward
Each feedback question works at four levels
Task level
How well the tasks are
understood / performed
Process
level
The main processes
needed to understand /
perform tasks
Self
Regulation
Self-monitoring, directing
and regulation of actions
Self level
Personal evaluations and
affect (usually positive)
about the learner
Hi I am at home planning my next trip to synedy
and Brisbaned for Christmas and New years
day I am going to stay in syned for a week and I
am going to stay in Brisburnd for a week with
my mum’s flat mate. When I went over to synedy
las time I met rua hes a dog of chris’s. Chris is
one of marys flat mate now last time when I went
there I had to count his money. Then there is nan
she has 3 children one is around 14 years old the
seoncod is 2 years old and the youngs child is
nine mothes old. Then I went to Brisbured. When
I got to Synedy I am going to go to all this fantsey
parks and and I am going to stay in a hotal.
How Would Your
Feedback Have Scored?
For a high score (on our rubric):
• Feedback provides an indication of:
– Extent to which the writer met the learning
objective (structuring recounts)
– Extent to which writing had features
associated with audience and purpose for
writing (friends about an interesting trip)
– What action the writer could take to improve

The Research Results
• 49 teachers
• Relationship between the quality of
feedback score and gains in student
achievement on a nationally normed
measure of writing (asTTle) highly
significant (r=.685, p<.01)
A second study (Timperley & Parr,
2009)
In a professional development project we
examined extent to which teachers were
explicit about and students understood
– Learning objectives
– Success criteria
– Feedback
– Feed forward
• 15 teachers, observed lessons (with
microphones), students interviewed
Teachers’
Learning Sequence
• Clarity of learning objectives and
success criteria developed first for
teachers (and understood by students)
• Found personal praise difficult to stop;
• Feedback about task
& process rare;
• Feed forward almost
nonnon-existent
Learning How to Give Feedback in
Ways that Promote Student Learning
• Requires that teachers’ professional learning is
carefully scaffolded over time (in the same way
as student learning)
– Teachers identify learning goals with students
– Identify own professional learning goals about
feedback practice for themselves (in relation to
students’ learning goals)
– Seek feedback from students and leaders on their
progress
– Readjust their feedback practice
– And so on ...
Timperley, H. (2008) Teacher Professional Learning and
Development. International Academy of Education.
International Bureau of Education. Paris: UNESCO
Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote student outcomes for teachers
What
knowledge
and skills do
our students
need?
What has
been the
impact of our
changed
actions?
What knowledge
and skills do we
as teachers
need?
Deepen
professional
knowledge and
refine skills
Engage
students in new
learning
experiences
Deepen student and
professional learning
focus
Re-assess students’
knowledge and skills
Professionals refine
feedback practices
Observe how students
respond (Prof feedback)
Professionals assisted to
Identify feedback practices
and new skills required
Assess students’
knowledge and skills
Relationship between
professional and
student learning
Where
are we
going?
How
are we
doing?
Where to
Next?
Feedback
and
Improvement
For Rest of the Day:
Think about How Teachers Can
Inquire and Build Knowledge
•
•
•
•
•
•
High stakes testing and student learning
National Monitoring system
Criteria development with teachers
Macro or micro assessment policy
Assessment in Curriculum of Excellence
Developing an ‘assessment
for learning’ culture