Feedback is crucial to support students during their learning journey. However, research shows that students often do not read feedback (Leki, 1992), and if they do read it, they read it to understand their grade and only apply what they learn from feedback to the assignment on which it is given. Therefore, try to avoid giving too much feedback and error correction so that it is not overwhelming. Your aim is to provide feedback to help students improve their academic skills and learn (Walvoord & Anderson, 1998; Straub, 2000).
There are five key components to providing constructive feedback:
Planned
Feedback focused on the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) is most relevant to students
Focused
Do not provide students a ‘blizzard’ of feedback with each piece its own ‘snowflake’, but rather focus on two or three areas of feedback per assignment. Focus the feedback where it will be the most beneficial for the student, both to attain the course ILOs and for their learning process.
Timely
Provide feedback promptly while the assignment is still fresh as students are interested in receiving the feedback and learning it. Provide feedback early in the process to help students learn and improve their assignment and resulting grade (for example, consider having students submit a draft).
Applicable
Think of it as “feedback” and “feed-forward”: what advice can you give that will help students do better on the next assignment, in the next course, and in their next year of study? If marking by hand, ensure your comments are legible and readable by all students. Consider typing the feedback if your handwriting is hard to read.
Neutral
Remember that the words that you write on a student’s paper can have a much more negative impact than you intended (see ‘Feedback comments’ section below). If you feel frustrated when marking, it is a good idea to set the marking aside, take a break, and do something a bit different until you can approach marking and feedback with a more neutral tone.
- Comment on things that are done well. Don’t just focus on what needs to be improved. For example, where someone has done a great job of marketing their skills, commend it to help boost their confidence.
- Make comments that are constructive, kind, to the point, and actionable. When you think something can be improved, suggest ways to improve it.
Here are some examples:
- “It could be better if …”
- “This section is unclear / vague / not explained well enough. Consider adding or changing …”
- “It is not clear how this is connected to the job description. Could you explain how this is relevant?”
Before commenting, think about how you would like to receive feedback if someone was helping you with your application package.
- What would you find helpful?
- What would make you feel frustrated or make you doubt you could improve your application?