One Third Makes It Worse
Over a third of feedback interventions decrease performance. Before giving feedback, check: does this comment address the work or the student? If it is about the student, rewrite it.
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of What Feedback Is in 03 Feedback, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
Kluger and DeNisi's finding is one of the most sobering in this strand: over a third of feedback interventions made performance worse. Feedback is powerful, but the power runs in both directions.
The dividing line in their analysis is where attention goes. Comments that keep a pupil's attention on the work tend to help; comments that pull attention to the self tend not to. The check on the card, work or student, is the practical version of that finding.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
Before returning books, a languages teacher reads her own comments as if she were the pupil receiving them. Two turn out to be about the pupil rather than the translation in front of them; both get rewritten to name something in the work: this tense is the one to fix, these five words need the accent check you used above.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- How pupils respond in the moment work is returned: heads down into the work, or looking around comparing themselves with others.
- Which of your comments you would be glad to receive about your own work.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- A comment can be about the student without naming them. Try harder, more effort needed and you can do better are all self-directed, whatever the phrasing.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
As the strand's opening argument puts it, some feedback helps, some does very little, and some makes things worse; Kluger and DeNisi supplied the numbers behind that sentence. The card’s attribution stands as published: Kluger & DeNisi.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Feedback.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 03 Feedback, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.