Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Reduce Volume, Raise Focus

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Timing & Frequency 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

A page of comments overwhelms the pupil and exhausts the teacher, and much of it goes unread. The evidence in this guide is blunt about that: feedback is not what the teacher gives, it is what the learner does with it, and nobody does thirty things with thirty comments.

One or two precise targets land. Choosing them is harder than writing many, because it forces the judgement about what would make the biggest difference to this pupil right now.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Marking a set of essays, a teacher writes one sentence per script: the single change that would most improve the next draft. Marking gets noticeably quicker, but the real change comes next lesson: ten minutes acting on the target, and for once every pupil knows exactly what theirs is.

Try it

A way to begin

Mark your next class set with a one-target rule. If you catch yourself writing a second comment, ask whether it matters more than the first; if it does, swap them.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • Whether pupils can tell you their target the next day. With a page of comments they usually cannot; with one they usually can.
  • What happens to the quality of your chosen targets when choosing is the whole job.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • Less volume only works alongside time to act. One precise target that pupils never get a lesson minute to address is still wasted effort.
  • This is about work in progress. Summative points where fuller commentary is required are a different job.

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

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

Technology second

Where technology fits

A digital highlight or pin tool, the approved one in your setting, suits this well: one marked spot, one comment, nothing else competing for attention. Audio comments can carry the single target quickly too. Faster feedback only matters if pupils use it.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Kluger and DeNisi's meta-analysis found over a third of feedback interventions made performance worse; precision and focus are much of what separates the feedback that helps. The card’s attribution stands as published: Shute; Wiliam.

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.

Work with Mark