Making feedback more effective for your students

Evidence and data from The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit demonstrates that effective feedback is low cost to implement but can have a very high impact on pupil progress. So, how can you make sure your feedback is effective for your students?

The importance of verbal feedback

While there has been much focus on marking (written feedback), reflecting on the verbal feedback you give can also have a big impact. Verbal feedback is one of the most important aspects of effective teaching, as teacher Alex Quigley recognises.

Effective feedback shows pupils what they have achieved, what they need to improve and supports them to make changes. It should be specific; a generic ‘well done’ is not helpful. Instead, perhaps you could say something like: ‘well done, I like the way you tackled that task, next time you could try...’ and give a suggestion for the future.

Make sure your feedback is focused on the student’s learning and given as quickly as possible during or following the learning. It is essential that pupils are given appropriate time to respond to the feedback and use it to improve their work.

There are many opportunities for verbal feedback during a lesson, including:

A quick prompt during independent work
A guided writing session with the whole class to demonstrate expectations
A mini plenary to address misconceptions
Clarification of task expectations
Longer dialogue with a pupil about a piece of work

All of these situations help pupils to be able to carry out a task or improve what they have done. But with all of these opportunities to give verbal feedback, how can you know that what you’re giving is effective?

Reflecting on verbal feedback

Consider using video to record your lesson and reflect back on how you use verbal feedback throughout. Ask yourself: ‘Were there any other opportunities for me to give feedback in that lesson?’

Verbal feedback is effective because it is often given during, or very quickly following, the learning or task. It offers more opportunity for dialogue between you and your pupil, ensuring that they understand the feedback, enabling them to respond to it and to action the feedback straight away.

To support this, think about how you give feedback: the tone of voice you use, your body language, how you can encourage the pupil to respond and join in with discussions.

Revisit the video of your lesson and look at how your pupils respond to your verbal feedback. Does it encourage them to develop their answers or work?

As well as explicit verbal feedback, also think about the implicit feedback you give throughout a lesson. To really improve student achievement, all the messages you give in a lesson should be focused on the learning. Yet sometimes, you may find yourself giving just as many instructions and messages about other aspects such as behaviour, spelling or presentation. This can confuse pupils as to what the expectations of the task really are.

Reflect on the messages you give throughout a lesson, during the input and while pupils are working independently to see whether your feedback is focused on the learning objective or on other aspects.

Do you have any tips of your own for making verbal feedback effective? Leave your feedback in the comments below:

Making feedback more effective for your students