• Home
    • About Us >
      • Blog
      • The Team
      • Advisory Panel
      • Contact Us
      • Press
      • From the PM
      • UNESCO UK Approved
      • UNESCO Patronage
  • Resources
    • 2022: CONFLICT
    • By Subject
    • By Key Stage
    • Tolerance Day Reading List
    • History of the World in 42 Moments
    • CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Political Systems
    • Media Literacy >
      • English
      • History
      • Maths
    • Assemblies
  • UNESCO
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Blog
      • The Team
      • Advisory Panel
      • Contact Us
      • Press
      • From the PM
      • UNESCO UK Approved
      • UNESCO Patronage
  • Resources
    • 2022: CONFLICT
    • By Subject
    • By Key Stage
    • Tolerance Day Reading List
    • History of the World in 42 Moments
    • CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Political Systems
    • Media Literacy >
      • English
      • History
      • Maths
    • Assemblies
  • UNESCO
TOLERANCE DAY

read the latest from the today team

Feedback: building personal agency in education?

27/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Engaging children with their education is an important part of the learning process but for many the constant pressure and focus on grades can create a barrier to learning, instilling a fear of failure rather than a love of learning.
 
While experienced and engaged learners may well enjoy school, there are many who feel that education is something being done to them, and don’t always get why it matters or what their role in the process should or could be. A sense of agency is critical for adults to be happy in their work lives, so why should it be any different for children? Making them feel as if they are part of this process, ensuring ongoing dialogue, should be an integral part of the educational system. One way in which this can be achieved is through the effective use of feedback.
 
Ruth Dann’s latest book, ‘Developing Feedback for Pupil Learning: Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Schools’ is a research based examination of how to address a pupil’s learning gap – the gap between the knowledge and skills they have today and what they need to do now and next – within the context of feedback. It explores what works, what doesn’t work, for whom and why.
 
Dann says that feedback is a communicative tool which teachers use to convey what has been achieved and what needs to be done next for learning to progress. It seeks to close a gap between learning (now) and learning (next). Often it is handled in a fairly technical way by teachers, who assume that pupils will understand the feedback messages in the way that the teachers intended. In reality this is often not the case.
 
In the UK, targets are given (sometimes with pupil input), and there seems to be a prevailing assumption that teachers can exactly frame what pupils will learn by stating  desired outcomes more clearly and more often. However, it is evident from the government’s own statistics that the performance of pupils in England has not improved in relation to other countries and certain groups of children repeatedly underperform. Part of the answer embedded in the recent government White Paper (2016) is to strive to find out the answer to ‘what works’.
 
Ruth Dann says, “Feedback can be seen as a two way process in which the teacher and learner can better  understand each other’s priorities and begin to negotiate ways to progress. To some extent it is relational rather than technical. Any feedback designed to shape learning must be acted upon by the learners and made their own.  It becomes personal and internal at the point of learning.  Therefore feedback, even if focused on curriculum content must be seen by pupils as having relevance and meaning for them.”
 
She argues that greater attention needs to be given in schools to helping pupils understand why aspects of their future learning is important. Dann suggests they need to envisage themselves as learners with new and increasing knowledge. Encouraging pupils to share their new learning with pupils in lower year groups can potentially have a role here. It can act as revision and consolidation for older pupils but can also provide younger pupils insight into the kind of learners they might wish to be.

In school settings there must be some way in which feedback can be regarded not as a fixed coded message for pupils to act on, but part of a relationship between teachers and learners which has meaning for both. How this might be achieved, relies on teachers and pupil s having trust between each other and the possibility for dialogue about teaching and learning within the school. If you’re interested in developing that process within your school, then this book is a great place to start.
 
If you or your school are interested in working with the Learn2Think Foundation on developing its Questioning Curriculum – a national curriculum based programme to encourage independent thinking, collaborative action and creative engagement – drop us a line at learn2thinkfoundation@gmail.com or call 07958 923 182.

This article first appeared in Education Today Magazine.
0 Comments

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Citizenship Foundation
    Cultural Diversity
    Empathy Lab
    Media Partners
    MEND
    NLCS
    P4C
    Philosophy For Children
    Questionnaire
    Rights Respecting Schools
    SAPERE
    The Week Junior
    UNICEF
    Values Based Education
    VbE

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly