csi_strategies.pub

Page 30 DVHS Continuous School Improvement GOAL #2 Purpose: Reading for Essential Understanding Strategy: Providing Feedback Providing Feedback Providing the right kind of feedback to students can make a significant difference in their achievement. There are two key considerations: ✓ First, feedback that improves learning is responsive to specific aspects of student work, such as test or homework answers, and provides specific and related suggestions. There needs to be a strong link between the teacher comment and the student's answer, and it must be instructive. This kind of feedback extends the opportunity to teach by alleviating misunderstanding and reinforcing learning. ✓ Second, the feedback must be timely. If students receive feedback no more than a day after a test or homework assignment has been turned in, it will increase the window of opportunity for learning. Feedback is a research ‐ based strategy that teachers, and students, can practice to improve their success. Key Research Findings • When feedback is corrective in nature—that is, it explains where and why students have made errors ‐‐ significant increases in student learning occur (Lysakowski & Walberg, 1981, 1982; Walberg, 1999; Tennenbaum & Goldring, 1989). • Feedback has been shown to be one of the most significant activities a teacher can engage in to improve student achievement (Hattie, 1992). • Asking students to continue working on a task until it is completed and accurate (until the standard is met) enhances student achievement (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). • Effective feedback is timely. Delay in providing students feedback diminishes its value for learning (Banger ‐ Drowns, Kulik, Kulik, & Morgan, 1991). • Administer tests to optimize learning. Giving tests a day after a learning experience is better than testing immediately after a learning experience (Bangert ‐ Downs, Kulik, Kulik, & Morgan, 1991). • Rubrics provide students with helpful criteria for success, making desired learning outcomes clearer to them. Criterion ‐ referenced feedback provides the right kind of guidance for improving student understanding (Crooks, 1988; Wilburn & Felps, 1983). • Effective learning results from students providing their own feedback, monitoring their work against established criteria (Trammel, Schloss, & Alper, 1994; Wiggins, 1993). Dean Mitchell, iStock/thinkstock