The power of feedback - part 1

Last friday I had an interesting meeting on Virtual Action Learning (VAL) in Breda. One of the items that struck me most is the discussion we had on the 'power of feedback' (by John Hattie). I mentioned this also on Twitter and Wilfred Rubens wrote an instant blog on the subject. I also received an interesting article by John Hattie (and Helen Timperley). The online version of this article can be found at: http://rer.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/77/1/81

The article discusses the effectiveness of feedback. It is said that feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achiement, but its impact can be either positive or negative. The article reviews the evidence related to its impact. This evidence shows that although feedback is among the major influences, the type of feedback and the way it is given can be differentially effective.

In the review, feedback is conceptualized as information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self, experience) regardings aspects of one's performance or understanding. Research shows that feedback can be powerful in learning, but show considerable variability, indicating that some types of feedback are more powerful than others. Those studies showing the highest effect sizes involved students receiving information feedback about a task and how to do it more effectively. Lower effect sizes were related to praise, rewards and punishment.

As I am confinced that one of the key-factors in succesfull technology enhanced learning is using a task-centered learningmodel based on learning by giving and receiving feedback from peers (and teachers), I'm very interested in this study. I will write more on this matter in future blogs.