Like
it or not, certain ways of giving learners feedback HELP them
learn.
Certain other ways HINDER their learning.
Certain other ways HINDER their learning.
Will
Thalheimer has just made available for free two reports on his
extensive research on what works - and what doesn't work - when it
comes to giving learners feedback.
He summarized the main points recently on his blog:
He summarized the main points recently on his blog:
- The most important thing to remember about feedback is that it is generally beneficial for learners.
- The second most important thing to remember about feedback is that it should be corrective. Typically, this means that feedback ought to specify what the correct answer is. When learners are still building understanding, however, this could also mean that learners might benefit from additional statements describing the "whys" and "wherefores."
- The third most important thing to remember about feedback is that it must be paid attention to in a manner that is conducive to learning.
- Feedback works by correcting errors, whether those errors are detected or hidden.
- Feedback works through two separate mechanisms: (a) supporting learners in correctly understanding concepts, and (b) supporting learners in retrieval.
- To help learners build understanding, feedback should diagnose learners' incorrect mental models and specifically correct those misconceptions, thereby enabling additional correct retrieval practice opportunities.
- To prepare learners for future long-term retrieval and fluency, learners need practice in retrieving. For this purpose, retrieval practice is generally more important than feedback.
- Elaborative feedback may be more beneficial as learners build understanding, whereas brief feedback may be more beneficial as learners practice retrieval.
- Immediate feedback prevents subsequent confusion and limits the likelihood for continued inappropriate retrieval practice.
- Delayed feedback creates a beneficial spacing effect.
- When in doubt about the timing of feedback, you can (a) give immediate feedback and then a subsequent delayed retrieval opportunity, (b) delay feedback slightly, and/or (c) just be sure to give some kind of feedback.
- Feedback should usually be provided before learners get another chance to retrieve incorrectly again.
- Provide feedback on correct responses
when:
a. Learners experience difficulty in responding to questions or decisions.
b. Learners respond correctly with less-than-high confidence.
c. All the information learned is of critical importance.
d. Learners are relatively new to the subject material.
e. The concepts are very complex. - Provide feedback on incorrect responses:
a. Almost always.
b. Except:
i. When feedback would disrupt the learning event.
ii. When it would be better to wait to provide feedback. - When learners seek out and/or encounter relevant learning material either before or after feedback, this can modify the benefits of the feedback itself.
- When learners are working to support retrieval or fluency, short-circuiting their retrieval practice attempts by enabling them to access feedback in advance of retrieval can seriously hurt their learning results.
- When learners retrieve incorrectly and get subsequent well-designed feedback, they still have not retrieved successfully; so they need at least one additional opportunity to retrieve-preferably after a delay.
- On-the-job support from managers, mentors, coaches, learning administrators, or performance-support tools can be considered a potentially powerful form of feedback.
- Training follow-through software-that keeps track of learners' implementation goals-provides another opportunity for feedback.
- Feedback can affect future learning by focusing learners on certain aspects of learning material at the expense of other aspects of learning material. Learners may take the hint from the feedback to guide their attention in subsequent learning efforts.
- Extra acknowledgements (when learners are correct) and extra handholding (when learners are wrong) are generally not effective (depending on the learners). In fact, when feedback encourages learners to think about how well they appear to be doing, future learning can suffer as learners aim to look good instead of working to build rich mental models of the learning concepts.
Those of us who have been studying human performance improvement for decades would easily pay Will upwards of $35 for a hard backed copy of his latest work, but he's making it available for free to anyone who would like to read the full reports.
Download them here:
What do you think about these
findings?
A couple of them really bowl me
over. I'll be reading and testing them against my own experience in
the weeks and months ahead.Good social science is such a valuable thing! Sadly, it's been all too rare in education.
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