Feedback in the Mathematics Classroom

In the school and department we are currently thinking about and discussing feedback. The focus is on Key Stage 3 and the terms of the discussion are:

• consistency across the department
• capturing good practice
• allowing individual ways of working
• not being onerous

My experience with top-down feedback systems is that they can become box-ticking exercises, “what do you need me to do?”. Without being informed by teacher experience it’s easy for the lack of buy-in to result in meaningless admin.

For us we have discussed as a department about what we do and what we could do better. The feeling is that there are small, easy wins that we can systematize that will help learners get a sense of what they should expect from their Mathematics study. Examples of this include:

• discussing the plan for the year at the beginning and comparing it to learner experience at the end
• doing similar things on a smaller scale, eg for a half-term or series of lessons
• prompting learners to consider what they consider to be their strengths and weaknesses from the previous time period (could be since the start of the year or the start of the term) and to plan how they will act upon this.

What is noticeable is that we have shifted beyond seeing feedback as simply the teacher putting red pen in books. Whilst an important element of feedback is going to be looking at what learners do (perhaps in quizzes and tests), prompting learners to look back at what they have done previously is more vital.

Teachers often feel that expectations to cater for students working at different speeds means planning multiple lessons but this is a good example of where that is not true. More confident students who are better able to verbalise and plan will require less support in this form of feedback, whereas others may benefit from speaking through their thoughts with the teacher or a peer first. One aspect of catering for students who are more confident needs to be to encourage independence.

We are still early in our thinking about how to improve our feedback systems but important ideas and common themes are coming through. Much like with no-notice quizzes on previous topics, building opportunities for students to look back over their learning journey can be a way to ensure that learning gains are consolidated.