Questions, Not Corrections

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Closing the Gap 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

When you correct a pupil's work for them, you do the thinking and they watch. Returning work with questions instead keeps the cognitive work where the learning is: with the pupil.

What evidence supports this claim? demands something of the writer that inserting the missing evidence never will. If feedback requires no response from the learner, it is information, not feedback.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

An English teacher returns paragraphs with a margin question each: which word here tells the reader how to feel, or what is your evidence for this? The lesson opens with pupils answering their question in a different colour before any new content begins.

Try it

A way to begin

On the next piece you mark, replace the corrections on one section with questions, and give five minutes next lesson for written answers. The answers will tell you whether the questions were any good.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• The quality of pupils' responses. A question that gets a one-word answer back was probably a correction wearing a question mark.
• Whether the same question stops being needed over time, which is the point of asking rather than fixing.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Simple procedural slips are often better corrected immediately; the guide is clear that quick feedback stops mistakes embedding on simple tasks. Save the questions for the thinking, not the typos.
• Pupils need to know how to act on a question, which is feedback literacy and has to be taught with an exemplar at least once.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 💡 Feedback Must Cause Thinking Write "why might this be stronger with evidence?" not insert the evidence yourself. If feedback needs no effort from the learner, it is information, not feedback. Thinking is the point. 03 Feedback · Feedback & the Learner
• ⏱️ Build In Time to Act Feedback with no time to act on it is wasted. Begin the next lesson with students reading and responding to comments before anything new. The response is the learning event. 03 Feedback · Closing the Gap
• 🌱 Build Feedback Literacy Teach students how to read and act on feedback before you give it. Model with an exemplar: here is the comment, what it means, what to do next. Feedback literacy is taught, not assumed. 03 Feedback · Feedback & the Learner
• ⏰ Immediate for Simple Tasks For simple or procedural tasks, correct errors immediately. Shute found quick feedback prevents mistakes from embedding. Do not wait until next lesson to fix what can be fixed now. 03 Feedback · Timing & Frequency
• ❓ 3 Questions, Not Corrections Return work with three questions rather than corrections. Students must respond before moving on. Cognitive effort belongs with the learner. Feedback that corrects for them removes the struggle. 02 Formative Assessment · Feedback That Moves Learning Forward

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

• Feedback and next steps

Technology second

Where technology fits

An annotation tool with a reply function, through your setting's approved platform, turns each margin question into a visible exchange: your question, their written answer, in one place. The reply is the point; a question with nowhere to answer it is a correction in disguise.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

This is Hattie and Timperley's territory: feedback that works answers where next, and a good question is often the most honest form that answer can take. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Feedback.