For three years, now, my school (Reigate School in Surrey) has embraced the move away from traditional written marking and made the move towards more effective, time-efficient methods which largely involve verbal feedback.
In October 2021, I spoke at ResearchED Surrey about our school’s move, along with mine and my colleague Michelle Marshall’s involvement in UCL and Ross McGill’s (@TeacherToolkit) Verbal Feedback Project. A link to the report can be found at the end of this post. I’ve spoken at a few conferences about verbal feedback, now, and I didn’t want the 2021 presentation to simply be a re-hash of old presentations. The notion of cutting teacher workload whilst simultaneously improving outcomes for students is something I’ve been passionate about for a few years, now, but I’m conscious of not wanting to stand in front of colleagues at Saturday morning conferences and presenting verbal feedback as a brand new idea. It isn’t anymore. And more to the point, neither are the principles underlying the methods my school now uses – a point I will pick up later on. However, as a quick look at educational accounts on Twitter and educational groups on Facebook will prove, there are still many teachers and schools who are relying on traditional written marking as their main form of feedback.
My presentation at ResearchED Surrey sought to not only give guidance to those attendees that were after advice about how to begin a conversation within their school about making the move towards verbal feedback, but also an account of where schools and the wider educational community currently are with the concept of verbal feedback. This blog post will outline some of my findings which I conveyed in my presentation.
- Ofsted framework, 2019.
One of the main barriers to schools making the move away from onerous written marking still seems to be the view that Ofsted need to see written marking, or at least a record of any feedback, including verbal, given to students. The following is a direct extract taken from their current (2019) framework:
‘Ofsted does not expect to see any specific frequency, type or volume of marking and feedback; these are for the school to decide through its assessment policy. Marking and feedback should be consistent with that policy, which may cater for different subjects and different age groups of pupils in different ways, in order to be effective and efficient in promoting learning.’
‘While inspectors will consider how written and oral feedback is used to promote learning, Ofsted does not expect to see any written record of oral feedback provided to pupils by teachers.’
The acknowledgement in the last sentence that feedback should be ‘efficient’ is more than a nod to the fact that no feedback methods should be burdensome on teachers’ time. Our time is finite, and time spent on ineffective feedback methods is time which can’t be spent on things which could have a greater impact on student learning. The reference within the same clause to feedback methods being ‘effective’ is non-specific, but again, directs teachers towards using methods which are going to have the greatest impact on outcomes.
2. EEF Feedback Guidance Report, June 2021.
Which leads me onto the Feedback Guidance Report published by the EEF (Education Endowment Foundation) in June, 2021. The opening sentences to this report read as follows:
‘New guidance on feedback encourages schools to prioritise key principles over methods.’
‘Schools should focus on the principles which underpin good feedback rather than the way in which it is delivered…’
Within the report, Professor Becky Francis states that in the current, recovery-focussed climate, effective feedback methods have never been more important. The report is also careful to emphasise that effective feedback methods should focus on moving learning forward, and that time is planned in class for students to act on feedback. Many of us are familiar with Dylan Wiliam’s statement that feedback is about improving the learner and not just the piece of work. A handy, printable A4 summary sheet is also provided within the report. If you are looking at beginning a conversation within your school or starting to think about CPD within this area, you could do worse than to print off a copy to go armed with when having the conversation, along with the UCL Verbal Feedback Report itself.
3. Early Career Framework, 2021.
A final area where we have recently seen greater reference to a move away from written feedback is within the new Early Career Framework of 2021. The framework is split into the familiar Teaching Standards, and divides these into sub-sections detailing that teachers should ‘learn that…’ and ‘learn how to…’. The following points are taken directly from the details contained within the ‘learn how to…’ section of Standard 6 – Make Accurate and Productive Use of Assessment:
Make marking manageable and effective, by:
• Recording data only when it is useful for improving pupil outcomes.
• Working with colleagues to identify efficient approaches to marking and alternative approaches to providing feedback (eg, using whole class feedback or well supported peer and self-assessment).
• Using verbal feedback during lessons in place of written feedback after lessons where possible.
• Understanding that written marking is only one form of feedback.
• Reducing the opportunity cost of marking (e.g. by using
abbreviations and codes in written feedback).
• Prioritising the highlighting of errors related to misunderstandings, rather than careless mistakes when marking.
We can see here that the framework does not specify any one type of feedback or particular method. It does, however, steer teachers towards making choices of methods which move pupil outcomes further forward, addressing misconceptions through feedback and considering the opportunity cost in terms of time. It also states that, (point 3), verbal feedback DURING lessons rather than written marking AFTER lessons should be used where possible. Catching students in the moment, being able to address misconceptions so that they do not become embedded and harder to unpick later on, impeding further learning, is crucial if we are to move our students forward.
4. The underlying principles.
At the heart of the content of these reports and frameworks is an evidence base. An evidence base rooted within the world of cognitive science. Over the last few years within education, there has been a growing acceptance that what our students are made to think hard about and where their attention is, is where the greatest understanding and eventually, deep learning will take place (think Robert and Elizabeth Bjork’s desirable difficulties and Daniel Willingham’s ‘memory is the residue of thought’). This concept is at the heart of any form of feedback. Dylan Wiliam points out that ‘feedback should be more work for the recipient than for the donor’. Therefore regardless of how feedback looks in your classroom, ask yourself ‘is this method going to make my students think hard about how to not only improve upon this piece of work, but also similar pieces of work, so that what they are about to undertake sticks for future use?’ ‘Am I going to give adequate time for my students to act upon this feedback and to be put into the struggle zone whilst doing so?’
This whistle-stop description has aimed to sign post some of the ways in which the focus away from written marking has been embedded in frameworks and research. Links to each document referred to within the blog post can be found below. I was part of the initial move within my school away from written marking but each time I had a conversation with any middle or senior leader, it was with a document in hand and an idea about how we might implement something within it. Change doesn’t happen overnight and staff buy-in is crucial, but with evidence and reference to evidence-informed principles within each of these reports and frameworks, it is clear that we now have a far greater basis for this change to happen. We’ve all seen fads come and go, but these were indicative of a time prior to the evidence-informed movement.
If we keep the principles and not just the methods at the forefront of everything that we do and any changes that we make, then we can be certain that we are pursuing what cognitive science tells are the current ‘best bets’ for our students.
Links:
Verbal Feedback Report (UCL and Ross McGill – @TeacherToolkit) – scroll down for the report itself and a ‘Toolkit’ guide of evidence-informed methods.
A link to the EEF’s 2021 guidance report of feedback, along with a printable copy of a summary poster of the report, can be found here:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/feedback
A previous blog post of mine detailing how I use whole-class verbal feedback sheets and live marking.
Sarah Larsen 
Sarah this is perhaps the best comprehensive analysis of how feedback should be used. It reflects the value of being practical in providing feedback whilst keeping at the heart of teaching and learning the critical things teachers are to do, one of which is moving learning forward. The learner must be constantly engaged and as recipient of feedback be the one doing the work. More SLTs need this knowledge but is even better that teachers have it and coach each other so that better decisions are made about what must be prioritised.
LikeLike