Mobilise Choice Feedback and Marking PLC2 2017

The model is taken from the EEF – A Marked Improvement. Examples of different forms of feedback. Quite a useful model to share with teachers/TAs to demonstrate all of the different kinds of feedback. Previous research suggests that providing feedback is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways of improving pupils’ learning. The studies of feedback reviewed in the Teaching and Learning Toolkit – an evidence synthesis produced by the EEF, Sutton Trust and Durham University – found that on average the provision of high-quality feedback led to an improvement of eight additional months’ progress over the course of a year. The circle around marking is emphasized because a large percentage of teacher time can be taken up with written marking or evidencing. The burden of marking on teachers was also noted by the 2016 report of the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group, Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking. It suggested that providing written feedback on pupils’ work has become disproportionately valued by schools, and the quantity of feedback has too often become confused with the quality. The group noted that and there is no ‘one size fits all’ way to mark, instead recommending an approach based on professional judgement. All marking should be driven by professional judgement and be “meaningful, manageable and motivating”.

What is feedback? The Power of Feedback: John Hattie and Helen Timperley ‘Feedback is conceptualised as information provided by an agent (e.g. teacher, peer, book, parent, self, experience) regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding. Feedback is a “consequence of performance.” Winnie and Butler (1994) `Feedback is information with which a learner can confirm, add to, overwrite, tune or restructure information in memory, whether that information is domain knowledge, meta-cognitive knowledge, beliefs about self and tasks, or cognitive tactics and strategies.` Keeping learning on track: Formative assessment and the regulation of learning: Dylan Wiliam `Feedback is not the same as formative assessment. Feedback is a necessary first step, but feedback is formative only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance. If the information fed back to the learner is intended to be helpful, but cannot be used by the learner in improving her own performance it is not formative.’ The Power of Feedback is a key read in terms of feedback and marking. It’s worth remembering/highlighting to teachers/TAs that feedback is information provided by an agent regarding performance or understanding– feedback could be information taken from an experience for example. Feedback doesn’t just come from written or oral sources. Dylan Wiliam states that feedback is only useful if learners do something with it. Advice is to ensure adequate time is given in lessons for pupils to respond to feedback, otherwise it is pointless. It is also essential to ensure that feedback can be accessed by the pupil. Domain knowledge is valid knowledge used to refer to an area of human endeavour, an autonomous computer activity, or other specialized discipline. Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about thinking", "knowing about knowing", becoming "aware of one's awareness" and higher-order thinking skills. The term comes from the root word meta, meaning "beyond".[1] Metacognition can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem-solving.[1] There are generally two components of metacognition: (1) knowledge about cognition and (2) regulation of cognition.[2] Metamemory, defined as knowing about memory and mnemonic strategies, Cognitive strategies are one type of learning strategy that learners use in order to learn more successfully. These include repetition, organising new language, summarising meaning, guessing meaning from context, using imagery for memorisation. All of these strategies involve deliberate manipulation of language to improve learning. Activities which can be described as cognitive strategies include making mind maps, visualisation, association, mnemonics, using clues in reading comprehension, underlining key words, scanning and self-testing and monitoring.

Michaela Community school– outstanding school in N. London Michaela Community school– outstanding school in N. London. Katharine Birbalsingh HT famous for no excuses and no marking. Controversial. Written marking/evidencing takes up huge amounts of teachers’ time. If the average teacher marks for just over 5 hours a week, that’s 200 hours of marking a year. Written marking is non-renewable: it’s a one-off. Each written comment I put in a pupil’s book only impacts once on that one pupil. What else could we do with all of those hours, that would impact more positively on future pupils and other teachers? Marking has a very low ratio of impact-to-effort, and a very high opportunity cost. (Taken from the Michaela School website) Michaela school feedback maximises the responsibility pupils take for self-checking, correcting, editing and redrafting their work. It maximises preemptive teaching, preventing frequent errors and common misconceptions; it minimises laborious, slow, reactive written comments. Although we still read pupil books, score exams, and circle misspellings to be corrected within lessons, we have scrapped written marking of pupil books outside lessons altogether. To monitor marking as evidence to hold teachers accountable for pupil progress is an illusion – comforting for managers, but unhelpful for teachers and pupils. Marking is a hornet. Hornets are high-effort, low-impact; butterflies are high-impact, low-effort. Feedback is a butterfly; marking is a hornet. We had been blind to just how badly the hornet’s nest of marking was stinging us.

What makes effective feedback? Dylan Wiliam on feedback Long clip but pick out relevant sections for your team. 17:33 – 19:20 - Dylan Wiliam explaining most effective type of feedback from a study by Nyquist What children do with feedback is the most important. Effect sizes – tell you about the strength and direction of any change that has taken place – 0.4 moderate, 0.8 large effect size. 19:20 – 23:00 The feedback effects table (from PLC1) 23:00-36:00 - Dual-pathway theory. Pupils’ mindset is a factor in how they take feedback on board+ Interest Capability Importance Value Cost – time/embarrassment When students are about to undertake an activity or task, students choose either well-being or growth. We want them to choose growth. How would this work in practice in your settings? Can we think of practical examples of different ways to encourage students to focus on growth rather than well-being. Does your feedback focus on growth rather than well-being? Examples given – lower the cost of failure – lots of people found this really difficult… building trust/relationships. Jaeger – wise feedback – tell pupils why you are giving them the feedback- not being mean, I care about your learning and want you to be able to improve and learn more. No such thing as correct feedback – how it is received and what pupils do with it.

Taken from The Power of Feedback by John Hattie and Helen Timperley You may find it helpful for all participants to have an A4 copy of this model. Background information for the Reading for PLC2. A model of feedback separating feedback into 4 different levels. There is a place for task, process and self-regulation level feedback. The reading suggests that feedback that focuses on the self is unhelpful and can hinder the student’s learning. The reading suggests that feedback which aims to move the student from task to process to self regulation can be very effective. Taken from The Power of Feedback by John Hattie and Helen Timperley

Teacher and Peer Feedback This clip is often used to demonstrate effective teacher and peer feedback. What can we learn from this clip? Austin's butterfly The clip suggests that feedback should be kind, helpful and specific. G. Nuthall suggests that 80% of feedback that pupils receive from their peers is incorrect. The clip suggests that pupils can learn to give effective feedback when it is modelled by the teacher, focussed on and given adequate time within a teaching sequence. The clip highlights the importance of giving pupils enough time to make improvements/act on feedback. Imagine if the pupil had stopped at draft 1 or 2? What made this an effective feedback session? – culture of welcoming feedback and criticism. Feedback and refinement cycle repeated until the creator was satisfied. What are the implications of providing this level of feedback? What level of feedback was the teacher providing? Task/process/self-regulation/self?

Self/Peer/Teacher Feedback This clip focuses on excellence and improvement feedback. What level of feedback is being given? Is it effective? Examples from the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 2 Shirley Clarke: Self/Peer/Teacher Feedback Show table. Explain that when complete, the table indicates the effect that feedback may have on pupil behaviour, motivation and goal setting. Ask staff to discuss what the outcomes may be and complete the boxes. Example - If a teacher indicated to a pupil, through their feedback, that they had exceeded their goal, for a child whose response is to change their behaviour, what might that look like? (They might exert less effort) Explain that the table is based on research, not all children’s responses will fit the table. What do staff think the shaded boxes on the table are for? (They highlight the only 2 positive outcomes from receiving well-intentioned feedback) Discuss what staff might say and do to try and ensure that the impact of their feedback on children is positive.

Teacher-Student Feedback Watch Example 7 followed by Example 10. What level of feedback is each teacher providing? How effective is the feedback to pupils? Examples of Teacher-Student feedback Example 7 – process feedback Example 10 – task feedback. Quite general feedback, some specific. The teacher picked an example from the pupil’s work to exemplify a success point that he was praising. Did the pupil understand what he was being praised for? What did the pupil take away from the feedback?