Developing Feedback Literacy
Welcome back to Term 2 and as we progress into academic year, the importance of acknowledging the loops of feedback available to students forms one the fundamental pillars in both learning and metacognitive development. Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on student learning but only when students can understand, process, and act upon it. Contemporary research, from the eminence of formative assessment Dylan Wiliam, urges viewing feedback as something teachers give to something students actively use. Crucially, the learner must do more cognitive work than the teacher providing the feedback. Effective feedback, therefore, causes thinking rather than an emotional reaction. This shift is encapsulated in our growing focus on feedback literacy.
Feedback literacy refers to the understandings, capacities, and dispositions students need to engage productively with feedback. Research by Carless & Boud outlines four interconnected dimensions that support students to close the feedback loop; appreciating feedback (recognising its value and seeing oneself as an active agent rather than a passive recipient), making judgements (developing evaluative skills about quality, using criteria and examples), managing affect (responding constructively to the emotions that feedback can provoke) and taking action (translating feedback into concrete improvement). Furthermore, the seminal work from University of Melbourne Professor John Hattie, highlights that students need to answer four significant questions from their perspective: What did I do well? Where do I need to improve? How can I improve? What should I do next time?
Our students have multiple opportunities to receiving feedback from both formative & summative assessments, teacher comments in workbooks/OneNote’s as well as individual learning conversations. The development of strategies to enhance feedback literacy is also explicitly delivered in Coaching and Success Advisor Sessions. Within our classrooms, teachers across the different Learning Areas are providing active learning and instruction for peer assessment to develop students’ ability to make judgements, engage in higher‑order thinking, and reflect on quality work. Likewise, teachers providing exemplars within their pedagogical approaches to support clarity around success criteria and quality. Research suggests that analysing a small number of contrasting exemplars with a rubric before an assessment can significantly improve confidence, metacognition, and self‑regulated learning which are all vital ingredients in fostering student agency.
Chris Needle
Assistant Principal, Professional Culture