I find the whole area of feedback very intriguing. I have spent a lot of time developing and delivering workshops on effective feedback for teachers. I found my own research on the topic of feedback to confirm the findings in the Hattie chapter.
Most importantly, I have found that if feedback (positive or negative) doesn’t confirm the expectations, beliefs, and ideas of the student, it is common for the result to be defensiveness. Once a student takes a defensive stance, I believe that the usefulness of feedback decreases and may have a negative affect on performance.
I’ll address the two questions presented in Lesson 3, but I have yet to offer feedback in my online course, so I will ponder various ways that I might offer feedback as I begin instructing tomorrow.
Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback to students and what Hattie recommends?
I feel that the majority of the feedback that I will be giving will fall into the process and self-regulation levels. I will try to give this feedback as immediately as possible in order to maximize the effectiveness. I have spoken to students who have taken MEd courses online, and they really feel that feedback and engagement of the instructor in the online community is critical to the success of the course. I plan to give as much formative feedback as possible.
Not much feedback will occur at the task level; however, I will use rubrics to give some task level summative feedback for assignments.
In terms of gaps, I feel that I need to create opportunities to receive and incorporate feedback from the students on a regular basis. The students in this course are primarily working professionals, so I feel that I need to listen and respond to their needs and currently there is no formal mechanism for collecting feedback during the course.
In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback that you provide for your students?
I feel that it’s important to be specific in my feedback. I also think that it’s important to engage the learner in dialogue through my feedback by asking questions about conclusions that have been reached that may differ from those I expect. I need to dig deep through my feedback to understand the process each student has used to reach their conclusions. I need to be prepared for diversity in responses and be able to recognize the extent of learning through different modes (eg. students have choice in some assignments about the way they respond; they can write, use video, or other visual representations).
I need to avoid gratuitous positive feedback and give specifics related to what has been done well.
A final comment…
Giving feedback is a complex and important activity for a teacher. I appreciated the mention of cultural differences in Hattie’s chapter. I have worked for decades with international students, and I have definitely noticed differences in the types of feedback that students from various cultures expect and learn best from. I think the most important lesson I’ve learned from experience and this was confirmed by the article is that when it comes to feedback, one size doesn’t fit all.