Sharing Good Practice
2 . Whole-Class Feedback : Read the work , find the commonalities and voila .
3 . Coaching Conversations : For deeper feedback that allows the student to engage with the feedback .
Too often , however , educational research is decontextualised ; what works in Southend in 2010 may not work in San Salvador in 2020 and vice versa . We needed more evidence . Evidence from our context . Leveraging the MA I was studying for , we used some Science ….. a mix of qualitative and quantitative action research , to be precise .
First , questionnaires to all the students I taught : what type of feedback do you find the most useful ? The winner …. Verbal feedback . Which kind of feedback do you find the least useful ? The loser ... Peer feedback ( there is a whole other project in this suite of responses as Hattie , Dylan William and others are clear that peer to peer feedback is the most powerful ). Taking the answers with the requisite pinch of salt , whilst triangulating them with research by ‘ proper ’ researchers and the thoughts of our teachers , we went for it …..
What happens when you leap without the rope ?
1 . You build trust . By removing the easily accessible and , in my opinion , deeply problematic ‘ quality assurance ’ that a set of marked books offer , you are communicating a powerful message to your teachers - we listen to you , we trust you , and we know you are feeding back in other ways . You need a high-quality staff who understands what and why the choice has been made .
2 . You challenge your teachers — this one I did not expect . We perhaps assume that teachers will fist pump the air and never look back if you remove the arbitrary written marking . Wrong . I underestimated the layers of institutionalisation we teachers have been through . Like my daughter , without her night bunny , a cluster of teachers like the security of the weekly book marking drill . It ’ s like brushing their teeth or buttering toast . A habit , almost . We put on PD sessions that deep-dived into the alternatives to written marking to counter this . Another group did a fist pump in the air and never looked back …
3 . You challenge the parent community . Again , parents may have their own perception of what marking ‘ looks ’ like , and they too need workshops and transparency about what , why and how .
Where to next ? A year without arbitrary written marking later , and the roof has not fallen in on our heads . The next phase is to review and renew . Particularly in Years 7-9 , the feedback demands on a teacher of a larger class can be challenging , and a silver lining of the COVID-19 lockdown was some trials of marking codes ; a potentially powerful ‘ middle ground ’ which provides written consistency without the potential for issues of workload and equity .
If nothing else , encourage your teachers to understand the difference between marking and feedback and that lots of red or green the pen does not always equate to lots of effective feedback . There is , after all , more than one way to cook an egg …
Andrew Bayfield is currently an Assistant Principal and founding member of staff at St Joseph ' s Institution International , Malaysia , and has also taught in the Middle East and the UK .
42 Term 3 Apr - Jun 2022
Class Time