I feel there is a gap in my feedback practices – namely face-to-face feedback in the classroom. I wonder if, like Hattie explains, my “that’s great” could be misconstrued as “you are doing fantastic”…period. This is especially true when students perform group work. I am sure they recognize that I am watching the group as a whole, and I recognize that out of four or five students, two or three are doing the bulk of the work. “That’s great!” is often meant for those students, but the ones who do not wholly participate will take that praise and run with it. I do not think that does anyone any favours.
This false sense of accomplishment is evident in essays when the work we have done in class is not followed by some. I try very hard to leave a lot of comments on student papers (this takes a lot of time), but am also learning that often the comments are not read – at least not the ones in the margins. Leaving longer comments at the end of an essay seems to work the best for the courses I teach. I am also including “peer feedback” for final essays. I find that this component makes students work harder on their papers earlier. Their peers’ evaluation of their work seems to be more important than mine. However, if this means that a student will try harder on a critical summary or a research paper, then I think it is an effective practice.
I think I can improve on my own feedback skills by balancing my constructive criticism with praise a little better. I know I often provide a lot of criticism and a few check marks (often time saving). Students need to see where they are improving and doing well. They need to read “that’s excellent” or “good” rather than just see a red check mark.