If you are an educator, feedback and assessment have been a part of your vocabulary and discussions for as long as you can remember. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably or confused for one another, yet they are so different.
In looking up the definitions of “feedback” and “assessment”, you will find one of the most prominent differences is that the word “process” is used numerous times in the definition of the word feedback. For educators, feedback is an essential strategy that has an evident and clear impact on learning (The Education Endowment Foundation), and assessments are the way that we evaluate learning.
According to Thanks for the Feedback by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone, there are three types of feedback: appreciation, which recognizes great work; coaching, which helps expand knowledge and skills; and evaluation, which assesses against set standards or expectations. The purpose of all three types of feedback is the same, to influence future work and learning by looking at what has yet to be done. Giving feedback is offering guidance and coaching in order to improve learning outcomes. For feedback to be effective, it needs to be given – and received – throughout the learning process, and communicated with an appreciation for what has been done and coaching for what has yet to be done.
So, feedback is focused on the process of student learning, looking at what has yet to be done, and assessments evaluate student learning by looking for what has been done, but are they completely separate entities? And are assessments always evaluative?
The answer to the second question leads us to a fork in the road as assessments can be characterized as either summative or formative. Summative assessments are given at the end of a unit or chapter and are typically evaluated, or graded; these are assessments of learning. On the other hand, formative assessments are given during the learning process in order for the student to adjust and iterate, as well as inform the teacher where to adjust future lessons and assignments; these are assessments for learning. The goal of formative assessments is to improve student learning and outcomes, just like the goal of feedback, and this is where the differences between feedback and assessments blur, and where they begin to be confused for one another.
Assessments can, and should, be designed so that they encourage the “uptake” of feedback (Winstone, 14). Formative assessments in particular can be used for mastery-based or standards-based grading systems, in which students can re-do assessments until they are proficient in the skill or standard, which in the end are graded and become summative. Additionally, using alternative forms of assessment to assess skills, allows for the end goal to be mastery of skills rather than memorization of content. These types of assessments allow for feedback to be given and used throughout the learning process with the goal of improving student outcomes when a summative assessment is eventually given.
Feedback is and can be given on both formative and summative assessments, but the timing is the main and most important difference since summative assessments are typically given at the end of a unit or chapter. At this point, students tend to look at the grade, rather than the feedback, and move on; therefore the feedback matters much less to the student than the grade itself. “Whilst students report interest in grades, they also express a hunger for feedback information (e.g. Higgins, Hartley, & Skelton, 2002; Winstone, Nash, Rowntree, & Menezes, 2016). Thus, limited focus on feedback information when accompanying a grade may be an attentional, affective, and motivational by-product of the entanglement of assessment and feedback.” (Winstone, page 5) When feedback is given on a formative assessment, the feedback can be used during the process of learning to improve work on future assessments. A common problem that arises here is that students don’t always know how to use the feedback they receive. This is where feedback literacy comes in!
In order to build feedback literacy with your students, your feedback first needs to come at a time and in a form that is useful; this is the first step in designing an effective feedback system and is called actionable information. Students can do very little with a comment such as, “Nice job”, “Not quite,” or “Good effort” as these comments don’t offer any guidance towards the end goal. In the article “The Bridge Between Today’s Lesson and Tomorrow’s” Carol Ann Tomlinson states, “Feedback needs to help the student know what to do to improve the next time around. For example, it’s helpful for a teacher to say, ‘The flow of your logic in this section is clear, but you need additional detail to support your thinking.’” Feedback in this example is targeted towards a particular objective and gives specific actionable information for the student to use to improve their work. Not only will this help the student on that particular assignment, but it will also build the student’s trust that their teacher wants to and will help them improve their learning and achievement. This leads to giving students agency to act, the next step in designing an effective feedback system. Creating agency to act gives the students a place to use the feedback in order to improve. “For information to lead to action, students need opportunities to apply feedback to future tasks in order to inform the development of their learning.” (Winstone, Chapter 1) When designing your lessons, unit plans, and curriculum, build feedback in! Create opportunities for students to apply your feedback to future tasks. Incorporating dedicated improvement and reflection time, or D.I.R.T. a movement out of the U.K., provides time during class or during the school day to read, process, and apply feedback.
At Floop, we believe that feedback, the feedback process, and feedback literacy are vital to learning. If you are looking to update your feedback system or work on feedback literacy skills with your students, the New Year is a great time to mix things up and try something new! You can start by modeling feedback literacy skills for your students; try assessing yourself with our Teacher feedback literacy self-assessment. Looking for a new rubric? Check out this rubric for feedback literacy and give it a try on your next assignment. Want to change your entire grading system? Check out our back-to-school blog post about reworking your grading system into a feedback system!
Floop allows students to get the feedback they need fast, engages them in the feedback process through conversations and resubmissions, and helps students learn how to give and receive feedback through a scaffolded and anonymous peer review option. Try it free today!
Sources:
“Feedback.” Feedback | Evidence for Learning | We Help Great Education Practice Become Common Practice., The Education Endowment Foundation, evidenceforlearning.org.au/the-toolkits/the-teaching-and-learning-toolkit/all-approaches/feedback/.
Stone, Douglas, and Sheila Heen. Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It Is Off Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and, Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood). Penguin Books, 2015.
Tomlinson, Carol Ann. “The Bridge Between Today’s Lesson and Tomorrow’s.” ASCD, 1 Mar. 2014, https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-bridge-between-todays-lesson-and-tomorrows.
Winstone, Naomi and David Boud. The Need to Disentangle Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2020
Winstone, Naomi, and David Carless. Designing Effective Feedback Processes in Higher Education: a Learning-Focused Approach. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2020.