Alternative Grading Pillar: Helpful Feedback
Helpful Feedback is the second of four pillars of alternative grading. See Clark & Talbert (2023) for more information about the four pillars model. As with any atypical course component, be sure to communicate with students why you're doing this, how it might help them, and what steps you'll take to make it right if it doesn't go they way you hope.
- What It Is
- Starting Small
- Explore More
What It Is: Helpful Feedback
Feedback is its own academic subject, and there's a lot to consider. One easy-to-remember, if not organic, way to provide such feedback is through "observational feedback." Simply report on what you observe about the work.
- Judgments—good or bad—are eliminated. Instead, the feedback provider simply indicates what they observe about the work. It is up to the feedback recipient to determine how they respond: what what changes they might make and what to continue doing.
- Personal generalizations are avoided. "You always have a hard time with..." "You never seem to..." "You're someone who..." Communicating your opinion of a student's nature this way leaves them little room for change.
- Speculations about motives are absent.Why has no place in observational feedback. "You probably did this because you think/feel...". In addition to painting the instructor as a talentless telepath, falsely ascribing motives to a student can damage the relationship. It's true for spouses, friends, colleagues, and students: look for disengagement wherever humans are found.
Simple and direct observational feedback often results in dialogue, a great outcome in terms of student-instructor relationships.
If that feels off-puttingly nouveau, keep in mind there are many models of feedback (Lipnevich, et al., 2021) here are common and practical distillations of feedback advice that echo but improve upon tradition:
- Focus on the work. This is different from critiquing the student themselves. Avoid "You did / you didn't" types of language. "I see," "this feels," or "tell me more about," work better than personal call-outs. (This is the advice above about avoiding judgments.)
- Suggest Improvements. Some aspects of a piece of student work may need improvement. Where can students grow and what suggestions do you have for how they grow? Moreover, how will the suggested changes help them going forward? Whenever possible, keep the feedback high-level.
- Highlight Strengths. It's important that students see what's good about the work. These are behaviors that you want to see students continue, forming the basis for "feedforward" (Hattie & Timperley, 2007.) Highlighting strengths should be similarly high-level.
- Stay in Scope. If the point of the assignment is to present a logical argument, does a misplaced comma truly matter? Do you need to comment on it? Certainly, there are cases where a misplaced comma changes the substance of an argument, as evidenced in courses in Law and similar fields. This will be context-dependent. The point is: Think about what's truly important in the assignment and focus feedback on that.
Starting Small
Alternative grading isn't an all-or-nothing proposition, a boon to the curious but apprehensive instructor. It's possible to incorporate small or supporting elements of alternative grading, help students, and learn a lot yourself. Below are just a handful of suggestions to help you start small with Helpful Feedback.
The lowest barrier entry point is at the top heavier (but potentially more helpful) suggestions appear lower. For deeper dives on Helpful Feedback, "Explore More" and "References and Resources" sections can be found below.
A handful of ways to deliver Helpful Feedback
One way to start small with Helpful Feedback is to recall that the strongest feedback also includes "feedforward." The difference is semantically clear: Feedback, strictly speaking, is retrospective. What did you see in the work? Feedforward is prospective. What do you hope to see going forward? You can increase the value students place on feedback by clarifying for them how they can and/or will use the feedback you've provided in the future. How will this help the student with the next draft? Assignment? Course? Their future or professional selves? This small adjustment can have tremendous benefit.
It's often (though not always) the case that the sooner feedback is provided after a task, the better it is for learning (XXX.) Instructors dealing with competing demands may not be able to provide detailed feedback as soon as they'd like. One approach might be to "chunk" the feedback. (1) Process student work quickly for initial impressions, and provide students that high-level feedback quickly. "What I noticed immediately is that your performance of this piece shows excellent phrasing. I also noted that the upper register seemed more sonorous to me. Was that intentional?" (2) More thoughtful and detailed feedback can follow later: "With further consideration, I noticed that you've been facile with phrasing all semester. This is a real strength of yours. Keep it up! I wonder if the difference in tone in different registers has to do with loosening the embouchure. Maybe try relaxing the face and moving the mouthpiece slightly in. If that's not it, could you try re-recording the piece using a different instrument?"
This is intended to balance constraints on your time, honor best practices in feedback (sooner is usually better), and provide students big-picture information before actionable detail.
Reflection assignments are one way for students to look at their own work and think metacognitively, and many instructors use them. Reflection assignments are also opportunities for students to review any feedback they've received. Make this explicit in your reflection assignments. Here are a few examples:
- "If you had to summarize the feedback you've received, what would you say?"
- "What are three 'through-lines' in the feedback you've received? Which of them seems the most important to you? Why?"
- "What is one instance of feedback that you feel you used to best effect or most deeply? What happened?"
Moreover, it's not necessary to use full reflection assignments. As one example, one or more prompts could be placed at the end of an exam, assignment, etc.:
- "What did you learn from your last exam? Have you made the same mistakes here? For things you do well, did you do them well here—maybe even better? Think about these questions and look through your exam one last time before handing it it."
The pillar here is "Helpful Feedback." In terms of a student's willingness to value feedback or find it helpful, an instructor might pause and ask: Who am I to say what information a student will find helpful? After all, your values at this stage may not be what they value. Solicit their interests. Through a discussion, survey, homework, or other means, ask students:
- What is something you'd like me to help you work on this semester?
- On this assignment, what is an area you're worried about? I'll provide some gentle recommendations for growth in that area.
- What's a skill you're proud of that you think comes across in your work? I'll try to make note of it. Where I can, I'll try to help you take it another step further.
Whatever you ask, be sure you'll be willing to act on it and provide students individualized attention.
Too many students? Have them vote on what they'd like the most feedback support on and make it a regular standard or rubric item.
Feeling ready to go all-in on Helpful Feedback? One idea is the "feedback log." It's what it sounds. Think of it as a student's diary of the feedback they receive and what they do with that feedback. Below are some of the steps or elements for a feedback log, but not all of them need to be used. This is a customizable technique.
- The student transcribes the feedback they receive into the feedback log, possibly along with the assignment itself.
- The student paraphrases the feedback, demonstrating their ability to interpret it.
- The student proposes one or more ways they could act on the feedback in the next draft, submission, assignment, etc.
- The student copies an assignment into the log and indicates where they acted on previous feedback.
In addition to serving as a student-owned action plan an metacognitive tool, a feedback log provides longitudinal insight about learning.
Explore More
Below are resources to help you take "Helpful Feedback" even further.
CTE Working Group: As mentioned, feedback is its own academic subject; there's a lot to explore! Luckily, the CTE hosts faculty communities around best practices in feedback. Sessions include both didactic material and conversations with university colleagues about impressions, practices, and aspirations. For more information, reach out to Drew at vartia@ku.edu.
Blog: If you've ever said, "I just can't get my students to focus on the feedback they receive!" this Grading for Growth blog post on "The Care and Feeding of Helpful Feedback" may be for you. HINT: You may need to get rid of distractions like points..
Blog: David Clark has also written about practical questions you might address when developing a system of feedback in your course. The article, "Planning for Grading for Growth: Fleshing Out the Feedback" is also available at the Grading for Growth blog.
Podcast: There are podcasts about this kind of thing as well. Krinsky & Bosley offer insights on Episode 11 of their podcast: The Grading Podcast. Check out a feedback episode here: Feedback - Giving It and Getting Students to Use It.
References and Resources
Clark, D., Talbert, R. (2023) Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education. Routledge.
Hattie, J., Timperley, H. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Rev. Educ. Res. 77(1), 81-112.
Krinsky, S., Bosley, R. (2023, Sept. 26) Getting Started Part 6: Feedback - Giving It and Getting Students to Use It. The Grading Podcast, Ep. 11. https://thegradingpod.com/episodes/11-getting-started-part-6-feedback-giving-it-and-getting-students-to-use-it/
Lipnevich, A., Panadero, E. (2021) A Review of Feedback Models and Theories: Descriptions, Definitions, and Conclusions. Front. Educ. 6: 720 195.
Talbert, R. (2022, Mar. 14) The Care and Feeding of Helpful Feedback. Grading for Growth.https://gradingforgrowth.com/p/the-care-and-feeding-of-helpful-feedback
Talbert, R. (2022, Aug. 29) Planning for Grading for Growth: Fleshing Out the Feedback. Grading for Growth.https://gradingforgrowth.com/p/planning-for-grading-for-growth-fleshing