How to Give Feedback Students Will Actually Use

Teaching is often a career choice that many shy away from, mainly after hearing dreadful stories or being discouraged by others in the industry. It’s certainly not without its challenges, but then again, isn’t any career?

The key to becoming a successful teacher is building relationships with your students, whether you teach preschool or high school kids.

Sounds easy, right?

​Of course, it’s impossible to build a relationship with every one of your students, but to be an appreciated teacher - you don’t have to. So I guess the question is, how can you encourage your students to like you?

Feedback might not be the first answer that springs to mind. Perhaps more obvious suggestions include sending personalised Christmas cards to each student, or playing fun, interactive games with them to help their learning.

Although these ideas will certainly bring a smile to your students' faces, they’re not exactly beneficial to them, nor you as their teacher. Constructive feedback, on the other hand, can play a significant role in strengthening relationships with students, helping to build trust and foster connections that last long beyond their school years. In this article, we will explore how to give feedback students will use.

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Ensure Feedback Is Personalised

Within a typical classroom of around 25-30 students, each will differ drastically in their academic abilities and attitudes to learning. Feedback that’s entirely personalised to each student is more constructive than generalised feedback - even if the majority of the class make areas in the same areas. Not only does personalised feedback give students a better chance to improve their work, but it’s also easier for them to understand and take on board because it's relevant to their current work.

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It’s also easier for you, as their teacher, to keep track of their progress, as you can clearly see in what areas they were suggested to improve and whether or not they were successful. When students see that the feedback they’re given is almost identical to other students sitting nearby, it may encourage them to feel demotivated to understand it, as it becomes the entire class's responsibility as opposed to solely theirs.

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Give Examples and Explanations

It’s widely understood that teachers can be stretched for time when reviewing and marking their students' work, and it explains why, on some occasions, teachers may give limited feedback as a means of getting through every student and each piece of work. Although you might think you’re saving time by keeping feedback concise, you’re actually making the entire feedback process longer, as it’s only a matter of time before you have to spend extra time explaining to them what your feedback meant.

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You can avoid this by giving students feedback that is still concise, but includes examples and brief explanations to help them understand better. You may decide to write an example in their books, or perhaps go through a few as a class. Another suggestion for teachers with limited time is to factor in some time to speak to students one-on-one, encouraging them to ask questions about anything they’re confused about.

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Offer Them Another Attempt

Feedback can be counterproductive if the students aren’t given another opportunity to improve. Even in small homework tasks, they can be given an easy way to test if they understand the feedback they’re given. If you’re marking a worksheet, perhaps finish off your feedback with an additional question - relevant to the worksheet - that they can have at using the feedback you gave.

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Be sure to also check answers to each additional question, or go through it as a class so that everyone can be clear on how to reach the correct answer. When working through questions as a class, it can be effective to ask students to lead by answering the question. Give a student who’s confident in their answer the opportunity to stand up and explain their answer to the class. This way students can better understand how their fellow students understood and answered the question, inspiring them to use the same techniques and methods.

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Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Even when feedback is given correctly, it can be easy for students to forget it - particularly when there’s lots of other information to remember across many different subjects. As a teacher, your role isn’t just limited to helping students understand content; it also requires you to help them remember it too. There are, thankfully, several different proven teaching methods and activities that can help students recall content better. For example, creating and learning flashcards, which students can test each other on, or timed quizzes to test what they can remember and compare scores. These methods should not only be used to help students remember new content, but also to remember the feedback that was given to them. This might involve testing their feedback knowledge regularly after it’s given, maybe the next morning, then the following week and so on.

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Encourage Questions

Now that you’ve given feedback that’s personalised, well-explained, challenging, and then repeated, it’s time to find out how well they understood it. As mentioned, offering them a second attempt at the question can help give you an indication of how much they're improving, though it doesn’t tell you whether they fully understand how you reach the answer. A comprehensive understanding is important, as in later exams they may be faced with complex questions where they will have to apply the knowledge that they have, rather than just state it. By encouraging questions, teachers can identify exactly where students are going wrong, rather than leaving them to figure it out themselves. It’s also helpful to ask them if they have any questions privately, because they may feel more obliged to say no in front of a large class of students.

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Giving constructive feedback to students takes time to perfect, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t feel that it is productive at first. In older classes particularly, you can simply ask students how best they receive feedback, to get an even better idea of what’s going to improve their learning and performance. If you think a student may need further support, you should recommend a tutor and keep track of their progress.