Leveraging feedback

I wish I worked in a system where I could get paid to give feedback but not grades.  Dylan Wiliam cites research that students who receive just feedback grow more substantially than those who receive just grades. Give students both at the same time and they tend to focus on the grade at the expense of the feedback. If we want students to pay attention to feedback and use it to grow, we are better off not giving them grades.

I wish I worked in a system where I could give feedback but not grades. But I don't. When I raised this problem with Wiliam at a conference earlier this year, he suggested a possible solution: give the feedback first, then give the grades a few days later.

Sounds great; but it's not something I have the power to implement. At my university at least, grades and feedback are delivered as a package.

This semester I was given the opportunity to co-write a new course including the assessments with my good friend and colleague, Stella. We wondered,

"How can we create the right conditions within our context so that students give greater attention to feedback?" 

As a minimum, we wanted them to at least read the feedback we gave them. But what we really wanted was for them to think about the feedback, seek to understand it and apply what they had learned.

We split our major assessment into two separate but related parts, each with its own marking rubric.

• In Part 1, students would complete a task and we would provide feedback and a grade. 
• In Part 2, students had to reflect on Part 1 and submit a written piece of work as well as deliver a verbal presentation to their peers about their learning.

We told them that in Part 2, they would be marked on their ability to critically reflect on Part 1 in the light of their feedback. They didn't have to agree with our comments to get a good grade: we made space for them to be critical of our feedback just as we asked them to be self-critical. We knew that it was possible that some students would only tell us what they thought we wanted to hear; but even so, we would know that at least they had read the feedback.

All went according to plan: the students submitted Part 1; we graded them, provided written feedback and a grade, and returned their work. We acknowledged their efforts, asked them to be open to our feedback and told them we were looking forward to Part 2. We gave them one week to write and submit their written reflection. To show them how much value we placed on self-reflection in the light of feedback, we set aside 10 minutes per student (1/4 of all of our workshop time for the semester) for students to present their reflection to their peers in subsequent weeks.

At first, those students who didn't do as well as they had hoped in Part 1 were worried about sharing their work with their peers; but we made it clear that they were not required to share their grades, and that any comments markers had made were theirs to share - or not. Stella and I feel strongly that even when students don't do well, they deserve to preserve their dignity. This wasn't about shaming; it was about creating a community of reflective practitioners. We reminded all of our students that no-one had received full marks, and no-one had received zero. Everyone had something to offer, and everyone had something more they could learn.

Over the past few weeks we have had the privilege to hear and read those reflections. 

Every person went about the task in a different way, but all of them responded to the feedback. Some students echoed back the feedback they were given - almost word-for-word - and then chose one or two points to elaborate on. Others have redone whole sections of their assignment and presented "before-and-after-feedback" versions of their work. As markers, we can clearly see the extent to which our students read and thought about our feedback, and used it to further their understanding.

There were some unexpected consequences: in the past, students have wanted to argue about the marks they received for their work. But by making everyone's work visible, those students who didn't get the mark they were hoping for were able to see why. There have been students who have asked for clarification of some comments but no-one has asked for their work to be remarked.

As an added bonus, the level of honesty and vulnerability our students have chosen to reveal to each other about their learning, coupled with their commitment to make a safe space in which to share those revelations, gives us great faith in the future development of these amazing people as reflective teaching practitioners.

Letter to my students

Dear students,

We know that you worked really, REALLY hard on this assignment. We know you agonised over your fair test, striving to write a testable question, to identify independent and dependent and control variables. We know you were thinking about how to make the best use of what you learnt in your last science unit to do it *just right.* (We even know when you fudged your results - because you left it too late or the plants didn't grow the way you thought they should or you only bought enough materials to do one repetition.) 

We realise that for many of you, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures are not something you are familiar with; but it's important so you took the time to learn more and to find connections with your topic wherever you could. Ditto sustainability. 

We know you spent a lot of time poring over the syllabus, trying to figure out which concepts to address and which skills were relevant for which Stage. We appreciate the effort you put into identifying alternative science conceptions. We recognise that you put considerable effort into creating and drawing and finding images that would engage students while also helping them understand science concepts. We get that it took time to prune your text down to fit the word limit so that every single word was important. We can see where you searched long and hard for relevant resources and worked to decipher APA6 formatting when compiling your reference lists. 

We accept that putting all of this together into a picture book required a HUGE effort.

You may not realise it yet, but we know that your effort was worth it. We know you will have learnt a lot about a great many things. 

         "But," we hear you say, "if I have come so far, why do I feel that there is still so much to learn?"

(Spoiler alert: teaching will always be this way.)

We want you to do well! 

This is why we have taken such time and effort to give you feedback: to help you recognise the things you did well and to identify the places where you fell short - or fell over. We want you to know yourself and to know what to fix, where to go next and even when to start again. 

Just as you learned a lot from making the book, we hope that you will learn from our comments. 

Be open to our feedback. It's far more important than your mark because it shows you how to grow.

We believe in you. 

We trust in your ability to work hard and to learn from your mistakes. We know you are capable of great things because already we can see how far you have come. 

No matter what happened in the first part of this assignment, know that we are eager to see you share your thinking with others in Part 2. They too know how hard this was, they know what you've been through and can't wait to see your work. Know also that each of you has something to offer your fellow students that they need to hear. 

We can't wait to see how you will continue to build your understanding of science and how to teach it. 

You've got this. 

We know you do.