Timely Feedback
If you seek to become better at something, getting the correct feedback is critical. The timing of that feedback is just as important. Many people of this generation like to play video games. A video game is most enjoyable when the player becomes better or sees progress in a particular game. The easiest and quickest way to become better at a video game is by accurately adjusting to what you are doing in the game. Actions in the game that are causing bad end results need to be minimized, while you must also try to increase your performance that leads to positive results. All of this hinges on the idea of feedback. If the player does not know what particular things they are doing in the game which are leading to a poor score, they will not correct that error. At the same time, if that player does not realize which moves are leading to higher scores, these good results will not be repeated very often. A key component to improvement in this area is “timely” feedback. If a video gamer does not know exactly when they have made a mistake, it becomes very hard to pinpoint the action that needs correction.
Another example of the importance of feedback can be connected to driving a car. When driving, if you hit the rumble strip, or the curb, on the right-hand side of the road, you need to make an immediate course-correction. When a student fails a test, it is like hitting a curb, they need to make an immediate course correction. Without timely feedback, they are driving with their eyes closed. Before they realize how much they need to correct their course, they drive into a lake.
For a student to be a consistent high performer in the classroom, the proper use of feedback needs to be used by the instructor. I do not doubt that most teachers give assessments throughout the year to their classes. The grades obtained from these assessments let the students know how they are doing in the particular subject. I believe for this grade to have any significant meaning going forward in the course, detailed timely feedback connected to the grade is necessary.
For example, if a student gets a B+ grade on an exam for a particular course, the grade tells the student that some things were not done completely correct. For improvement to occur on a future assessment, detailed timely feedback from the first assessment is needed by the student. If the exam taken by the student is not reviewed or in a worst case scenario, the test is not given back to the student by the teacher, before the next assessment, how can improvement be expected?
Good future results for students depends greatly on them getting the proper timely feedback on things they have already done. As teachers I believe it is our responsibility to give good assessments. But it cannot stop there. How quickly, those assessments are given back to your classes, and how you review it with them, is just as important for long term improvement and success.
How do you review with your classes, things you have done with them? How good is your feedback? How “timely” is your feedback? Let us know.
