Providing Effective Feedback
Gibbs and Simpson (2005, p. 9) are among many scholars who emphasise the crucial importance of feedback in learning. They highlight "the extraordinarily large and consistent positive effects that feedback has on learning compared with other aspects of teaching." Earlier research by Hattie (1987) similarly identified feedback as one of the most influential factors affecting student achievement. However, contemporary understandings of feedback have moved beyond viewing it simply as comments provided by lecturers on completed work. Instead, feedback is increasingly understood as an ongoing process in which students actively engage with information about their learning and use it to improve future performance (Winstone et al., 2021). This perspective shifts the focus from what lecturers provide to how students interpret, act on, and learn from feedback. It recognises that valuable feedback can come from multiple sources, including lecturers, peers, and self-evaluation, and that its effectiveness depends on students using the information to inform future learning (Boud & Molloy, 2013). For this reason, feedback is important not only because it helps students understand their current performance, but because it supports the development of future learning.
| Characteristic | Effective Feedback is: |
|---|---|
| Timely and Fresh | Delivered while details are still fresh in the student's mind and in time to assist future performance. |
| Clear and Specific | Uses accessible language, avoids academic jargon, and provides precise examples of where work fell short. |
| Educative and Constructive | Focuses on strengthening and extending what was done well while suggesting solutions for improvement rather than simply identifying errors. |
| Actionable and Usable | Provides clear next steps and strategies that students can practically apply to future work. |
| Balanced | Maintains a mix of positive reinforcement and critical development points to support student morale. |
| Proportional | Spends more time on the most significant goals of the assessment rather than minor surface errors such as spelling, and remains well aligned with learning outcomes and assessment criteria. |
What can lecturers do to preserve feedback’s function as a learning tool?
If feedback is to support learning, students need opportunities to engage with it, act on it, and apply it in future work. Too often, feedback becomes closely associated with grades and completed tasks, reducing its potential to inform improvement. The following approaches can help maintain feedback's developmental function and encourage students to use feedback as part of an ongoing learning process.
Suggestions include:
- Provide developmental feedback before awarding a summative grade where possible. This can encourage students to focus on improvement rather than immediately directing their attention to the mark received.
- Use active cover sheets. Ask students to include a brief reflective statement with their submission explaining how they have used previous feedback to inform their work. They can also identify specific areas on which they would like feedback.
- Build in opportunities for feedback throughout the assessment process. One approach is to divide a larger assessment into a series of smaller components or milestones. Students can receive and respond to feedback at each stage, using an active cover sheet to document how feedback has informed subsequent work (Winstone & Boud, 2022).
When feedback is clearly linked to learning and is used effectively, it can provide a range of benefits for students. For example, successful feedback can:
- Build learners' confidence and sense of progress.
- Motivate learners to further develop and improve their learning.
- Provide clear information about performance and how it can be enhanced.
- Create opportunities for learners to identify, address, and correct errors.
- Help learners recognise their strengths as well as areas requiring further development.
The following principles can be used as a guide for effective feedback:
- Timely: The sooner you provide feedback, the more effective it is.
Feedback is most effectively provided as soon as practicable after the assessment has taken place, so that any learning from that feedback can still be connected to the assessment content and to enhance student learning. - Useful: Don’t neglect the benefits of generalised feedback.
Feedback should be critical, but supportive to learning, in order that it encourages a student's confident scrutiny of their future work. - Goal Referenced: Feedback should, in as much as can be practically achieved, be directly related to learning outcomes and given assessment criteria, (in order that each student is very clear on what was and will be expected of them). In line with best practice it is appropriate to indicate the right assessment criteria matched to learning outcomes.
Feedback on work should go beyond editing comment (i.e. grammar, spelling, mathematical notation, presentation) and link to the broader learning outcomes. Common editing type feedback can be given through the use of a feedback defined check list. - Accessible: Feedback should be given with due care and attention to standards of respect for diversity and individuality, and should rarely be directed at the student, but rather at their work. Feedback is most likely to have a significant effect
- Tangible and transparent: Never give only a grade or mark.
- Actionable: Focus on the work, not the student, and try to be positive.
- User-friendly (specific and personalized): Give feedback when students do good things too — not just when they get things wrong.
- Ongoing: Try to give feedback that students can use later in the same course.
| Feedback Type | Focus | Examples / Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluative (Judgemental) | Focuses on how well work meets expected standards, criteria, or outcomes. | Often involves grades, marks, ratings, or judgements of quality. “This demonstrates a strong understanding of the key concepts.” |
| Descriptive | Focuses on what the student has done and identifies areas for development. | Describes strengths and weaknesses without simply judging performance. “You clearly explained the theory, but the application to practice needs further development.” |
| Directive | Focuses on specific actions the student should take next. | Provides clear guidance about improvements or revisions. “Include more evidence from the literature to support your argument.” |
| Facilitative | Focuses on prompting reflection, analysis, and independent thinking. | Uses questions or prompts rather than providing answers. “What evidence might strengthen this conclusion?” |
| Formative | Focuses on supporting learning and improvement during the learning process. | Given while there is still time to act on feedback and improve future performance. “Consider revising your approach before submitting the final version.” |
| Summative | Focuses on evaluating achievement at the end of a task, module, or programme. | Often accompanies final grades or overall judgements. “You have met the learning requirements for this assignment.” |
| Feedforward | Focuses on how learning from this task can be applied to future work. | Encourages transfer of learning to subsequent assignments or contexts. “In your next report, consider structuring your discussion around key themes to strengthen the analysis.” |
What Criteria Should Guide Our Choice of Feedback Mechanisms?
- What makes feedback effective?
- What helps students actually use feedback?
- What makes a feedback approach sustainable for staff?
- How do we balance quality, consistency, and workload?
- What should students experience when receiving feedback?
When selecting a feedback method, ask:
- Does it support the intended learning outcomes?
- Is the feedback timely and actionable?
- Will students understand and use it?
- Does it encourage dialogue and reflection?
- Is it manageable and sustainable for staff?
- Does it promote fairness and consistency?
- Does the method fit the scale and context of the assessment?
- Does it help students develop future performance, not just justify a grade?
There are several ways to approach the provision of incremental Module feedforward to your students:
- Giving feedforward, i.e. suggestions for what students should do in their next assignment.
- Request students to identify and act on their previous modules’ feedback in their current module.
- Asking students to request specific feedback, supporting them in taking ownership on their feedback.
- Giving feedback, and supporting students to self-monitor, on a generic rubric that is used throughout the programme, i.e. a programme group-work rubric; a rubric for critical thinking common to all major/programme modules.
- Using analytic rubrics for structured feedback in early years and holistic rubrics in later years (O’Neill, 2018).
Choice of Feedback
One size does not fit all! Academics have experimented successfully with giving students options for the form of their feedback. For example, students could be given the choice of written feedback, or instead a short talk with the lecturer to receive the feedback on their learning task. On the assignment coversheet you can include a box where students can select their feedback preference.
- Make it worth their while!
- Build activities focusing on feedback into class - or tutorial - time
- Be seen to monitor whether students are reading and acting on Feedback
- Involve students in actively doing something with the feedback
- Give audio feedback, with the marks at the end
- Give feedback without, or before, marks
- Embed some dialogue with students within your feedback process
- Let feedback from one stage of an assessment feed into the next
- Make sure your feedback is worth reading!
- Make sure your feedback is high profile
Source: Becky Lewis (2022) 'Tactics to ensure students engage with and learn from feedback'. Times Higher Ed.
Many lecturers spend a huge amount of time providing detailed and constructive feedback, yet students often fail to take on board the constructive guidance. Some practical tips to overcome this are to show students how they can apply feedback to their next assignment by emphasising the need to read and reflect on feedback and how it can be used to enhance their work. Use voice notes to make clear that it is tailored to their submission. Where possible, feedback should be provided as part of a discussion between staff and students.
Key factors influencing engagement
Whether students use feedback depends not only on the feedback provided, but also on who receives it, who gives it, and the context in which it is used.
| Factor | Why It Matters | Examples / Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| Student Factors | Students are more likely to use feedback when they are motivated, confident in their ability to improve, and able to reflect on their work. | Some students focus mainly on grades rather than comments. Others may see poor performance as beyond their control, making them less likely to act on feedback. |
| Educator Factors | Students are more likely to engage with feedback when they trust the person providing it. | Feedback tends to have greater impact when educators are seen as knowledgeable, supportive, approachable, and genuinely interested in student progress. |
| Feedback Factors | The way feedback is written influences whether students understand and use it. | Feedback can be less effective if it is too long, unclear, full of specialist terminology, or focuses only on mistakes. Specific suggestions for improvement are usually easier to act upon. |
| Learning Environment Factors | The design of modules, assessments, and feedback processes affects opportunities to use feedback. | Feedback may have limited impact if it arrives too late, if assignments are disconnected from one another, or if students have no opportunity to apply what they have learned in future work. |
Student feedback literacy denotes the understandings, capacities and dispositions needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies (Carless & Boud, 2018, 1315)
What does student feedback literacy look like?
A feedback-literate student:
- actively seeks out and engages with feedback.
- actively seeks out information to promote and enhance learning.
- recognises the value of feedback in improving their learning.
- interacts with their educators and peers to engage with, interpret and make sense of feedback received and given.
- is open to constructive criticism of their work from educators and peers.
- acknowledges and manages their emotions associated with receiving feedback, while developing skills to receive critical and evaluative feedback about their work without becoming defensive.
- develops reflection skills to critically review their own work and associated behaviours (internal feedback).
- develops the skills to give constructive critical and evaluative feedback to their peers (external feedback).
- develops the skills and strategies for acting on feedback received.
- aims to continuously improve their academic performance based on feedback received.
Why is the development of student feedback literacy important?
- It fosters deeper learning of subject matter.
- It promotes development of reflection and critical thinking skills.
- The development of skills to both give and receive constructive feedback enhances student work-readiness.
- It promotes the development of a lifelong learning mindset and habits.
Principles underpinning the facilitation and fostering of student feedback literacy
- Consideration must be given to the student perspective when designing and giving feedback. Learning how to receive, and give, feedback is a skill that requires time and opportunities to practice and refine.
- The design of cohesive curricula and learning environments should provide students with opportunities throughout their programme of study to receive, interpret, and act on feedback, while also learning how to formulate and give feedback.
- Assessments should be scheduled to allow students time to engage with feedback, and to apply feedback, to inform improvements in future assessment tasks.
56 - The development of feedback literacy should be situated within discipline-specific learning activities.
- Students should be coached and mentored while developing their feedback literacy skills.
- Student feedback should be recorded and tracked to monitor the impact of the feedback.
Activities to promote the development of student feedback literacy
Pre-feedback training: Educators should explain to students how to give and receive feedback, demonstrating how this is done.
Peer feedback: Students can be asked to give feedback on the work of a peer(s), while also receiving feedback on a piece of work from their peer(s). Students should be encouraged to co-construct and self-regulate learning through discussion of feedback with peers. Educators should give students feedback on their peer feedback activities to promote further enhancement of student skills in giving and receiving feedback.
Exemplar analysis: Use selected sample of student’s work to demonstrate examples of good quality of student work, while facilitating the clarification of student assessment expectations. Engage students in active critical thinking and discussion about the exemplars presented.
Multi-stage assessments: Assessments such as team projects, or e-portfolios, involve opportunities for both internal and external feedback. These should include a sequence of assessments allowing students to generate, receive, and use feedback.
Signposting feedback: Feedback for learning - Developing student self-evaluative judgement/reflective skills Assessment 'for' and 'as' learning is concerned with developing the student’s knowledge, skills and competencies to the point where he/she can critically evaluate his/her own work, and the work of others, against the standards of the discipline. Reflection on assessment feedback is a key component of this process. Rubrics have an important role to play but other strategies to foster student reflection on feedback are also useful e.g. reflective prompt questions to be answered by the student such as “what is the feedback saying?”, “What do I as a student think/feel about the feedback?”, “What am I going to do now to act on this feedback?”
- Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2004-5). Conditions under which assessment supports student learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1
- Hattie, J. A. (1987). Identifying the salient facets of a model of student learning: A synthesis of meta-analyses. International Journal of Educational Research, 11, 187–212.
- Winstone, N., Boud, D., Dawson, P., & Heron. M. (2021). From Feedback-as-Information to Feedback-as-Process: A Linguistic Analysis of the Feedback Literature. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 47(2), 1–18.
- Boud, D., & Molloy, E. (2013). Rethinking Models of Feedback for Learning: The Challenge of Design. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 698–712.
- Chalmers, C., Mowat, E., & Chapman, M. (2018). Marking and Providing Feedback Face-to-Face: Staff and Student Perspectives. Active Learning in Higher Education, 19(1), 35–45.
- Henderson, M., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., Dawson, P., Molloy, E., & Mahoney, P. (2019). Conditions that enable effective feedback. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(7), 1401–1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1657807
- Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven Keys to Effective Feedback. Educational Leadership, 70, 10-16.