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Star (2016) An exploratory investigation into influences of form of digital feedback on learners’ engagement with their feedback

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Star (2016) An exploratory investigation into influences of form of digital feedback on learners’ engagement with their feedback

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Submitting formal assessments along with summative ones

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Submitting formal assessments along with summative ones

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For example, submitting some blog posts along with an essay.

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Should we have feedback on summative work?

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Should we have feedback on summative work?

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It needs to be linked to what has come before and what should come later.

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Record your screen, share your thoughts, and get things done faster with async video.

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millions use Screencastify to create amazing videos

/* Sets tab pane to display block instead of default display:none */ /* Allows CSS opacity transitions */ .w-tab-pane, .w--current { display: block; } /* Any .w-tab-pane that does not have webflow .w--curent sets opacity 0 */ .w-tab-pane:not(.w--curent) { opacity: 0; } /* Any element with .w-tab-pane that has .w--tab-active sets the opacity 100% */ .w-tab-pane.w--tab-active { opacity: 1; } /* Set the opacity transition to 1 second ease-in */ .w-tab-pane { transition: opacity 1s ease-in; }

Educator, student, marketer, engineer, gamer. Whatever part you play, you'll have simple, yet powerful screen recording and editing tools.
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Easily share your creations in multiple channels. Let more viewers watch, pause and rewind on their schedule while maximizing time by eliminating unnecessary meetings.
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Collect video assignments to ensure any team or student is heard. Track viewing activity and add interactive questions and more to ensure your message is understood.
Learn more

Educator, student, marketer, engineer, gamer. Whatever part you play, you'll have simple, yet powerful screen recording and editing tools.
Learn more

Easily share your creations in multiple channels. Let more viewers watch, pause and rewind on their schedule while maximizing time by eliminating unnecessary meetings.
Learn more

Collect video assignments to ensure any team or student is heard. Track viewing activity and add interactive questions and more to ensure your message is understood.
Learn more

loved by everyday video creators

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Screencastify | Screen Recording and Video Editing

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Screencastify is the leading screen recorder for Chrome. Install the extension to record, edit, and share videos in seconds. Create video class assignments, training and tutorials, and make business communication faster.

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How much do people use self-assessment for students?

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Using Google Forms to capture peer feedback, Kahoot quizzes to gather evidence of learning, Nearpod for gathering and giving feedback.

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More active learning in order to give regular feedback during activities.

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Using Google Forms to mark each other on their phones. Allows you to trace back and monitor the feedback.

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Resources from Jisc Assessment and Feedback Programme

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Resources from Jisc Assessment and Feedback Programme

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The 20 projects taking part in our assessment and feedback programme (2011-2014) investigated a range of technology-supported solutions to the assessment challenges of UK higher education.

These include scaling up innovative technology-enhanced approaches, embedding electronic assessment management, getting more from feedback and boosting student employability.

The programme's initial landscape review gave a clear account of the causes of assessment and feedback issues in UK , and a starting point for change. The programme's final report captures the projects' journeys and achievements, and provides a full summary of the learning across the programme. It highlights how technology applied appropriately can lead to something truly transformative.

Knowledge, themes and resources arising from this work have been shared with the sector in four themed short guides, project blogs and in a series of themed written and video case studies. Our assessment and feedback webinars and podcast, ' driving changes in assessment and feedback', provide further insights.

Read our quick guide for a summary of the programme's key themes and outputs. Explore our more detailed assessment and feedback accounts and our guide, ' effective assessment in a digital age' and its accompanying video case studies.

Keep informed

Our ongoing electronic management of assessment (EMA) project explores how technology can support the assessment lifecycle. Keep informed by joining our tech-enhanced assessment mailing list, via postings on our EMA blog or by following us on Twitter #jiscassess.

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The 20 projects taking part in our assessment and feedback programme (2011-2014) investigated a range of technology-supported solutions to the assessment challenges of UK higher education. These include scaling up innovative technology-enhanced approaches, embedding electronic assessment management, getting more from feedback and boosting student employability.

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https://padlet.com/tabbetts/icklpe79o9v8

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Frequency, formatives versus summarises, timing

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NUS assessment and feedback benchmarking toolkit

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NUS assessment and feedback benchmarking toolkit

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10 principles of good assessment and feedback

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10 principles of good assessment and feedback

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Using Turnitin to provide constructively aligned feedback

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Using Turnitin to provide constructively aligned feedback

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From Sussex TEL blog

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Implementing processes to support the electronic management of assessment has been a priority for many universities and colleges in recent years, with many making use of Turnitin as a means of checking the originality of submitted work and providing feedback to students.

The University of Sussex have been using Turnitin in this manner since the introduction of e-submission and e-feedback at the start of the 2014-15 academic year.

The following article will look at ideas and best practice for using Turnitin's GradeMark software (soon to be renamed Feedback Studio) to constructively align marks and feedback to a module's intended learning outcomes.

Constructive alignment and criterion referenced assessment

In essence, the purpose of constructive alignment is to ensure that all activities of teaching, learning and assessment within a curriculum are designed in a way that is relevant to the intended learning outcomes.

' The key is that all components in the teaching system - the curriculum and its intended outcomes, the teaching methods used, the assessment tasks - are aligned to each other. All are tuned to learning activities addressed in the desired learning outcomes. The learner finds it difficult to escape without learning appropriately.' (Biggs, J. 1994)

Criterion-referenced assessment design is an approach commonly used to constructively align an assessment to learning outcomes. This method uses a scale of predefined standards to measure a student's performance in relation to a set of criteria for which work is assessed against in order to determine a grade. Using criteria derived from the learning outcomes is an effective way to ensure that it is aligned.

The benefits of this model are that it provides a robust set of benchmarks for tutors to ensure that marks and feedback can be justified in a way that is fair and consistent, and for students to use as a point of reference for how their work has been (or will be) assessed.

Turnitin Rubrics

Rubrics are one of the key features of the Turnitin software for providing marks and feedback. They can be thought of as a grid-based form containing predefined feedback which can be customised (per assessment) to include criteria (on the vertical axis), scales (on the horizontal axis) and descriptors (on the grid).

Tutors can use this tool to provide feedback on a student's individual piece of work by selecting the relevant boxes on the grid which indicate the performance level on the scale in relation to each of the criteria.

Here's a brief breakdown of the terminology and purposes in related to a criterion-referenced assessment for the different areas of text which can be used on a rubric:

Criteria: defines the characteristic or property by which the work is being assessed. Typically derived from an intended learning outcome.

Scale: defines the different levels of attainable standards. Typically based on a grade boundary or other performance indicator.

Descriptor: defines descriptive details of the standards and expectations to achieve each level of the scale within the context of each criteria.

A single rubric can be created and standardised per individual assessment in order to provide consistency for marking all submissions, however each custom Rubric form can be easily reused, adapted and shared for use in other assessments.

Turnitin includes the option to automatically calculate a grade based on the percentage weightings of criteria and points for each level of the scale which can be defined during the creation of a Rubric.

For technical guidance on how to create a Rubric or Grading Form, please see the Personalising TurnitinUK GradeMark information on the University of Sussex Technology Enhanced Learning website.

Ideas for designing rubrics

Use learning outcomes for the module as a starting point for defining the assessment criteria and ensure that standards and descriptors are appropriate for the level of study for your students.

For standards to have value as a justified measure, it's important that each standard and related descriptor is written using language which is clear and concise for both staff and students to understand.

Don't overcomplicate it. If the rubric is too detailed, then student expectations and feedback will become too prescriptive and rigid; as a guide, 3 - 5 criteria and standards is a good number to aim for.

Engaging students in the criteria before the assessment will provide a better understanding of the expectations. This could be facilitated through peer-review or formative assessment activities where students critically analyse examples of work using the assessment criteria.

Aligning qualitative feedback comments to assessment criteria

Another valuable but perhaps underused feature of Turnitin is the option to specify which assessment criteria (on the Rubric or Grading Form) each individual document annotation is relevant to.

This adds a layer of personalisation and cohesion to feedback by enabling markers to align and contextualise individual qualitative feedback comments to the assessment criteria. It helps students to make the connections between how specific areas of their work has affected performance in relation to the assessment criteria, learning outcomes and overall grade.

This is enabled by the 'associate a criterion' feature can be set by the marker within each individual QuickMark or Bubble Comment (see below) and can be set at the point of creating a comment or later on when editing them.

This will display to the student (and markers) as feedback labelled by criteria within each individual comment where an association has been created, and also on the Rubric (or Grading Form) as a pop-out list (see below) of associated comments for each criteria.

Selecting a comment from the pop-out list will highlight the comment on the paper to enable the student to easily review the comment from the Rubric within context of the document.

For technical guidance on how to use the marking tools within Turnitin, please see the Marking with TurnitinUK GradeMark information on our website.

Further Support

Providing support, training and guidance on effective pedagogic practice with the technology used for e-submission and e-feedback is one of the services provided by Technology Enhanced Learning for teaching staff at the University of Sussex.

If you would like further support on any of the topics mentioned in this article then please contact your school learning technologist .

We offer staff assistance in the design, development and implementation of Rubrics and Grading Forms within Turnitin and are able to set them up for your assessments so that they are available for use as soon as your assessment deadline passes and submissions become available for marking.
Further Reading

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Constructively aligning criterion feedback using Turnitin - Technology Enhanced Learning

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Implementing processes to support the electronic management of assessment has been a priority for many universities and colleges in recent years, with many making use of Turnitin as a means of checking the originality of submitted work and providing feedback to...Read more ›

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Feedback Strategies to help students understand feedback

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Feedback Strategies to help students understand feedback

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1 Ensure the communication of feedback is clear and legible
2 Draw on Module Learning Outcomes and Grading Criteria
3 Explain the discourse of academic language
4 Pitch feedback sensitively

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Steps in helping students to close the gap between current performance and the expected standard of work:

1 Help clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards) Carefully-worded rubric and grading criteria and feedback which overtly reflects and draws on the wording in the rubric / criteria are both important to clarify what is expected of students. However, where this has been misunderstood, it is important to reinforce and clarify through the use of dialogue, exemplars or formative classroom tasks engaging students in ranking criteria and/or peer-assessing others’ work so as to help them gain a working understanding of what is expected.

2 Provide guidance to help students perceive the gap between current and desired performance One approach to feedback which can supportively help students perceive the ways in which their work does and does not meet the standard expected is to approach the feedback not as judgemental comments, but from the perspective of tutor as reader (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick 2006). Talking in terms of how the work was ‘experienced’ can be an effective way to convey to students how and where it differs from what was expected.

3 Include some clear, achievable, targets for future development, to close the gap between current and desired performance. These targets could include:
 General academic features / study skills
 Presentation, style, structure
 Range and use of reading
 Criticality
 Focus on the question / establishment of a key and relevant question. (University of Hull Quality Handbook, Section F - Assessment, Annexe 10)

Such targets will be relevant at both mid- and end-module stages; however, for students to be empowered by the feedback to then act to improve their work, it is not enough simply to include a list of aspects where improvement is needed, but also to provide practical advice as to how to go about improving them.

Source:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/feedback_toolkit_whole1.pdf

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Effective Feedback is: What comes across loud and strong from the students is the importance of placing the student or learner at the centre of all good feedback practice. Feedback should not be written with the aim of justifying the mark that has been given to the work (MacLellan 2001) or produced to meet institutional requirements 'as part of a learning and teaching strategy, as part of your workload or to be used as evidence for external examiners or external review' (Irons 2007, p.54). Effective feedback should be produced for the student, with the student's learning needs as the central concern.

In this, to be effective feedback:

 Is feedback which is picked up, read, and acted on by students Feedback will have no impact on future student learning, unless they actually pick it up, read it and act upon it!
 Is Timely To be effective feedback should be provided for students while it still matters to them and in time for them to use it as feed forward into their next assignment.
 Helps students take action to improve their learning Feedback should be for learning, not just evaluation of learning. It should help to 13 close the gap between current performance and the expected standard of work, written to take into account students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing.
 Is clear, detailed and specific It is important that students can understand the feedback you give, and to achieve this feedback should be specific about where, for example, mistakes were made or where additional information can be found in the literature. It is important too to avoid too much academic jargon, and word feedback in language students will understand.
 Has a forward-facing focus Feedback should be constructive, not just backward-looking, with a focus on aspects of the work which are relevant to later assessments. For example, a focus on generic issues such as study skills or presentational factors helps feedback to also function as feed-forward, building skills for future work.
 Builds motivation and self-esteem Feedback should help students want to learn by being encouraging and supportive in tone, and including a focus on existing strengths and, where there are weaknesses, guidance how to improve.
 Is realistic and focuses on students’ performance Make sure your students realise that the feedback is about their work, rather than about them as people, with an appropriate level of challenge, asking them to do things they are able to do, not things they do not know how to do.
 Is targeted to the purpose of the assignment and the criteria for success The functions of feedback vary according to the nature of the assessment and to its criteria for success. Be flexible and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.
 Encourages dialogue with tutors and peers as a way to make sense of their learning Feedback should not be seen simply as something which is delivered by tutor to students, leaving individuals to try to make sense of what has been said about their work. Dialogue between tutor and students, and in the form of peer-to-peer feedback and discussion around the meaning of feedback can help students learn more.
 Helps students develop their ability to make informed judgements on their own work The goal of feedback is enhancement of learning and improvement of future work and should therefore develop students' abilities to self-audit the quality of their own work

Source:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/feedback_toolkit_whole1.pdf

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Even Better If (EBI) and More of This (MOT)

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Even Better If (EBI) and More of This (MOT)

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- Even Better If... (EBI)
- More Of This (MOT)/What went well (WWW)

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Advance HE - We help higher education organisations be the best they can be, by unlocking the potential of their people.

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What is the research behind AFL?AFL helps in making understanding and knowledge, as John Hattie describes it, ‘more visible’. AFL helps learners understand what excellence looks like and how they can develop their own work to reach that level.

Feedback has a positive effect on learner achievement. In John Hattie’s seminal work on educational effectiveness, Visible Learning for Teachers (2011), Hattie ranked feedback strategies 10th out of 150 factors that bring about significant improvements in learner outcomes. This was particularly true if the strategies involved feedback about the learner’s own work.

Black and Wiliam argue that if teachers use formative assessments as part of their teaching, students can learn at approximately double the rate. Hattie's research also shows that using formative assessment in the classroom brings about real-world differences in learner achievement.

Source: Cambridge University Press - CPD on Assessment for Learning

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Metacognition
Metacognition is a term used to describe ‘thinking about thinking’ and supports the idea of self-assessment. Metacognition suggests that all learners need to be able to reflect on their own learning, to understand how they learn best and to reinterpret any new knowledge, skills and conceptual understandings that they have acquired.

Learning happens when students are given opportunities to build upon previous knowledge and experiences. Research consistently shows that only telling learners what they need to know is much less effective than helping them construct meaning for themselves.

Want to know more?
In this video, Dylan Wiliam talks about his work on AFL and how it helps to improve learner achievement.

www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au explains the terms associated with AFL in more depth.

Source: Cambridge University Press - CPD on Assessment for Learning

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Attribution theory
Attribution theory says that people explain their own successes or failures to themselves in different ways. Some factors that lead to success or failure are controllable and some are not.

Examples of factors that a learner might feel able to control include how much effort they make and how interested they are in the subject. Non-controllable factors include luck or the amount of help the learner receives from the teacher.

Learners who take part in self-assessment (as part of AFL) learn to attribute failures to controllable factors. For example, a learner doing badly on a homework assignment might realise that they focused on the wrong subject matter. Because the choice of subject matter was in their control, they can review, edit and improve the work. Being in control in this way will boost the learner’s confidence and achievement.

Source: Cambridge University Press - CPD on Assessment for Learning

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Simon Starr at Christchurch uni on methods of giving feedback as at ALTC 2017, 1600 - Simon Starr - Engaging learners with digital feedback.pptx

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1600 - Simon Starr - Engaging learners with digital feedback.pptx

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Good Designs for Written Feedback - Nicol, D.

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Good Designs for Written Feedback - Nicol, D.

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In past decades, teachers would design a unit of study that would typically include objectives, teaching strategies, and resources. The student's mark on this test or exam was taken as the indicator of his or her understanding of the topic.

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Imagine that you recently gave some feedback to a member of your team. You told him that his meeting agendas looked great, but he needed to improve his presentation skills.

You follow up a few weeks later to find out why he hasn't made any changes. You discover that he didn't understand what he could do to improve - your feedback simply prompted more questions. He was left thinking "What's good about my agendas that I can transfer to other documents?" and "What's wrong with my presentation skills?"

The Situation - Behavior - Impact™ (SBI™) feedback tool helps you to deliver more effective feedback. It focuses your comments on specific situations and behaviors, and then outlines the impact that these behaviors have on others.

About the Tool

Developed by The Center for Creative Leadership, the SBI™ feedback tool outlines a simple structure that you can use to give feedback:

When you structure feedback in this way, your people will understand precisely what you are commenting on and why. And when you outline the impact of their behavior on others, you're giving them the chance to reflect on their actions and think about what they need to change.

The tool also helps you to avoid making assumptions that could upset the other person and damage your relationship with him or her.

Applying the Tool

Let's look at each part of the SBI™ feedback tool and discuss how to use it to structure feedback.

1. Situation

When you're giving feedback, first define the where and when of the situation you're referring to. This puts the feedback into context and gives the other person a specific setting as a reference.

For example:

"During yesterday morning's team meeting, when you gave your presentation..."

2. Behavior

Your next step is to describe the specific behaviors that you want to address. This is the most challenging part of the process, because you must communicate only the behaviors that you observed directly.

You must not make assumptions or subjective judgments about those behaviors. These could be wrong, and this will undermine your feedback.

For example, if you observed that a colleague made mistakes in a presentation, you should not assume that he hadn't prepared thoroughly. You should simply comment that he made mistakes - and, ideally, note what the mistakes were.

Don't rely on hearsay, as this may contain others' subjective judgments. Again, this could undermine your feedback and jeopardize your relationship.

The examples below include a description of the specific behaviors you might want to address:

"During yesterday morning's team meeting, when you gave your presentation, you were uncertain about two of the slides and your sales calculations were incorrect."

Tip:

Aim to use measurable information in your description of the behavior. This helps to ensure that your comments are objective.

3. Impact

The last step is to use "I" statements to describe how the other person's action has affected you or others.

For example:

"During yesterday morning's team meeting, when you gave your presentation, you were uncertain about two of the slides and your sales calculations were incorrect. I felt embarrassed because the entire board was there. I'm worried that this has affected the reputation of our team."

Next Steps

Once you've delivered your feedback, encourage the other person to think about the situation and to understand the impact of her behavior. (The Perceptual Positions technique can help her to explore how other people may think.) Allow her time to absorb what you've said as well, and then go over specific actions that will help her to improve.

Also, where someone has done something well, help him to think about how he can build on this.
Key Points
The Center for Creative Leadership developed the SBI™ feedback tool to help managers to deliver clear, specific feedback. SBI stands for:

To use the tool, describe the "when" and "where" of the situation. Next, describe the other person's behavior, only mentioning actions that you have observed. Then, communicate the impact of his or her behavior on you and others.

Finally, discuss what your team member needs to do to change this behavior in the future, or, if his behavior had a positive impact, explore how he can build on this.

SBI and Situation-Behavior-Impact are trademarks of the Center for Creative Leadership. For more information on how to use and apply this tool in your organization, check out the Center for Creative Leadership's workshop kit: Feedback that Works.

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The Situation - Behavior - Impact Feedback Tool: Providing Clear, Specific Feedback

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Imagine that you recently gave some feedback to a member of your team. You told him that his meeting agendas looked great, but he needed to improve his presentation skills. You follow up a few weeks later to find out why he hasn't made any changes.

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Over the past few months, I have been fortunate enough to work in a wide variety of contexts around the country with fabulously open and highly reflective practitioners. Of late, I have been involved in engaging and often very challenging debates around the ways in which all forms of observations are used in schools to improve the learning experiences of young people.

One of the main areas of my work is concerned with how to develop and sustain a safe and effective culture of quality professional reflection. An integral aspect of this involves the design of dynamic professional development programmes that integrate a culture of coaching, action research and developmental lesson observations.

This includes:

the constant testing and revision of all observation formats

clarification of the purpose of all observations

agreement of the intended and expected outcomes of all observations

reflections on the language for and of learning

creation of a range of observation tools (different tools for different purposes)

systems that reflect and embrace the values of truly developmental and highly reflective professional learning

An often neglected area of the process of all forms of observation is the post-observation conversation*. In establishing a culture where developmental lesson observations are used to develop the quality of learning opportunities alongside and not instead-of or as separate-from judgmental or graded observations, the challenge is to find the most effective way to ensure that every post-lesson conversation is about professional learning and not professional telling.
Quality post-lesson conversations
The conversation following any type or style of learning observation can, and should, make as many of the demands on the professional expertise of the observer as on the practitioner whose lesson has been observed. This is just as true for a developmental lesson observation as it is for a graded / formal / judgemental lesson observation. It's certainly true that just because there's no grade to be given doesn't make the complexities (practical, emotional and professional) of the discussion any more straightforward.

We can employ as much reassurance as we can think of in the form of...

'It really IS developmental, there are no judgements here' OR...

'Remember, I'm not using the criteria to form any judgements in this, so don't worry' OR...

'The lesson observation format I'm using doesn't allow me to look for evidence that could be used to grade the lesson'

...BUT until a reflective and developmental culture is established (and even after it is), it is worth remembering that it is likely that it may always feel, for the person whose lesson has just been observed, that the 'grading elephant' is present in some guise in the room.

This is particularly true at that critical point of the commencement of the post-lesson conversation when the crowd of learners have packed up and their backpacks have disappeared towards their next lesson. For most, it is worth noting that this is when heart rates spike again, for both the observer and practitioner. It is at this point that the sophisticated skills of the observer have to be fully deployed into the situation, immediately and expertly.
Scorpion feedback
A typical structure of much of our feedback conversations with learners involves providing some positive reinforcement and actively noticing some elements of effective practice followed by some 'points for development'. This is often encapsulated as 'What Worked Well' and 'Even Better If' or 'Two Stars and a Wish' AfL-style feedback. At other times, it comes in the form of a 'feedback sandwich', where the effective element is followed by a developmental point and finished with another effective element. This structure has been adapted by many schools for observers to use with practitioners as part of the post-lesson conversation. The actual structure has many merits, whichever version or adaptation is used.

What I have been reflecting on most recently, however, is the relative impact of the effective elements (WWW) against the impact of identifying the (WWW) developmental points.

What often happens is that the person receiving the feedback does't really listen to the WWW, however fabulous these are because they are waiting for the EBI. So whether there is a formal judgement hovering and waiting to be delivered or simply a non-graded developmental EBI, or both, the 'EBI' can still act as an unhelpful sting in the tail of the conversation, regardless of how massively positive the impact of learning has been as a result of the WWWs. And however accomplished the practitioner has been whilst employing these WWWs.

One of the main reasons for this is:

(1) The WWW and the EBI are often, although not exclusively, presented as two very separate, distinct elements of the observation.

(2) The source of these separate elements is often very different. This is because the process of identifying the elements of effective practice and the elements that we would consider as goals for development, even during the lesson itself, tends to involve an entirely separate search.

So the observer might see...

(1) (WWW) The lesson structure is clear

(2) (WWW) The Learning Outcomes & Success Criteria were communicated effectively to students

But identify...

(3) (EBI) The teacher-questioning didn't encourage expansive answers from the learners.

All three points are really important, but when this particular post-lesson conversation occurs, there is a danger that all the practitioner hears is point (3) and leaves the lesson thinking, 'My questioning isn't good enough'. In doing so, they may fail to acknowledge and or even care that their planning was really effective and that the construction and communication of learning outcomes and success criteria ensured that all students knew why, what and how they were learning throughout the lesson. These elements may constitute two things into which they've invested huge amounts of time and energy and with this, elements of practice that another practitioner two doors down the corridor would really benefit from seeing in action. But they leave the experience thinking, 'my questioning isn't good enough.' and add this to the infinite 'to-do list of a self-imposed 'must-do-better' mindset.
The M.O.T.** and avoiding the STING
So, in implementing Marginal Learning Gains Theory, the observer has the opportunity to be as meticulously selective as the reflective practitioner for whom they are observing the learning. In doing so, they can identify a specific area for development directly from the effective elements already in place. This means that the onus is on the observer to make a clear and specific connection between the elements of the lesson that have been effective and identify how more of this will enhance the quality of the learning experienced. This also means that as observers, we have to really up our game in making a highly sophisticated professional analysis of what really needs to be 'grown' from existing practice that will make the biggest impact on the quality of learning.

Obviously, in a coaching relationship, the options for what to focus on in terms of growth are identified and prioritised by the practitioner, but the elements from the observed learning presented by the observer still need to inform and enhance the depth of this conversation.

So, here's one very simple strategy (and yes, it will very soon be appearing as a Marginal Learning Gain) and the bonus is that is has an equally transferrable application for peer and self assessment activities with our learners.
* I am deliberately not referring to the post-lesson observation conversation as 'feedback' because in doing so, it still feels like I'm describing something that is predominantly a one-way process. This is regardless of how much we insist upon the need for there to be several feedback channels where the 'loudest' feedback channel is that from the 'learner' (or the practitioner's lesson being observed in this instance) to the 'teacher' (the observer in this case). **And yes, this means I have a new acronym (because I really don't think we have enough in education).

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Even Better If we specifically focused on What Went Well

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Over the past few months, I have been fortunate enough to work in a wide variety of contexts around the country with fabulously open and highly reflective practitioners. Of late, I have been involved in engaging and often very challenging debates around the ways in which all forms of observations are used in schools to improve the...