Feedback: the good, the bad and the overwhelming workload.

We all know that feedback is an integral part of teaching. It's a part of the job that you either love or hate. In fact, findings from a recent survey (taken in the work room whilst having lunch!) reveal that some teachers enjoy the marking process and find it to be an insightful and rewarding experience whereas other struggle to wade through mounting piles of work, stumbling at the last 5 of so pieces (why is the last piece always the hardest to mark? Why?!)

I, for one, am not a fan of marking. Now, before you march on me to take away my QTS, let me defend myself by saying I am not alone in this camp. Marking is one area that teachers believe takes up much of their workload with the 2019  Teacher Work Load Survey reporting that 53% of teachers think they spend too much time marking despite 40% of teachers acknowledging that their schools are trying to reduce it. Furthermore, the Department of Education's independent work load review found that marking and feedback is 'valued disproportionately by schools'  because it is a specific desire of OFSTED to see "good teachers ‘checking pupils’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and providing clear, direct feedback.’(sic). Simply put, many teachers mark and give feedback because of the optics; it's expected by OFSTED and is an easy way to say 'here you go, look at all this work I'm doing.'

But this is not why we should be marking and feeding back to pupils. Feedback is for our students, not for OFSTED, not for senior leaders and not for parents. It is a dialogue of 'learn, do, feedback, improve' between pupil and teacher and should therefore be personalised and meaningful.

This is, in part, why I have so much trouble with marking. In a subject with multiple assessment objectives to meet within an essay, I often have much feedback to give and therefore, I feel obligated to each pupil to write an extensive amount of feedback, especially for students who have written several pages of work. But sometimes, writing too much feedback can have the adverse effect. Consider the 2019 Gallup study that found that continuous feedback with targets for improvement can be seen by employees as being negative, making 30% of people look for other jobs. Now imagine being a teenager and receiving two or three prompts per piece of work in every subject and consider how that might feel. The Gallup study goes on to reference a study on the 5:1 feedback ratio, where teachers were encouraged to give 5 pieces of positive feedback via gestures, verbal, written or whole class feedback to every one piece of feedback designed to improve students' attainment. This method reduced behaviour management issues and resulted in higher academic engagement and teachers found the method to be 'feasible, acceptable and effective.' High praise indeed.

It's also worth asking why written feedback became king of the castle when there is extensive research on the value of other feedback methods? Verbal feedback, peer feedback, digital feedback or simple marks can be just as effective as written feedback. When considering that, it does make us question: who exactly is written feedback for?

Now, I'm not saying we kibosh written feedback; it has its place and is a very useful way for students to track historic feedback in order to feed-forward (we love a buzzword in teaching, don't we?) but writing endless prompts on individual work can be adapted to reduce workload. Below are several strategies you might consider using in the future.

Whole class feedback.

Useful for when you find yourself identifying the same prompts time and time again. The idea here is that after looking through and marking student work, you write your prompts and feedback on the board for the whole class. This aids metacognition as you can then ask your students to identify where they met a strength and to identify where they need to apply a prompt. This is particularly useful at A-level. Additionally, you can add a shout outs section to praise students who have done something particularly well.

Pre written prompts

This is one to use for when you know your students very well and can anticipate what prompts they will need. In this example, prompts for a year 7 assessment are already on the feedback sheet ready to highlight. This saves time writing and leaves more space for students to reflect on their work.

Verbal feedback

When done correctly, verbal feedback is the most effective type of feedback, especially for pupil premium and SEN students, however it does take time.

After an assessment, plan time to have one to one tutorials with students. This works brilliantly for smaller groups and for 6th form. Whilst you discuss the work, the student takes notes of feedback.

Other ways to do this are live marking with verbal feedback in class. As a class are working, circulate and give feedback to students as you look at their work. You can use a verbal feedback stamp or simply write VF but the student is responsible for writing down the verbal feedback from the teacher and then acting upon it.

I hope some of these strategies prove useful for you; no matter how you deliver your feedback, it should always be worth your time but shouldn't devour your time! 

Happy marking!