The Research on How To Mark Students' Work

The evidence for marking
 
The Education Endowment Foundation in the UK has published a new review of the evidence on written marking. Researchers from Oxford University found that there were very few robust studies - too few to conduct a formal systematic review or to make definitive recommendations. Based on the limited evidence, the review makes the following tentative suggestions:
  • Careless mistakes should be marked differently than errors resulting from misunderstanding. The latter may be best addressed by providing hints or questions which lead students to underlying principles; the former by simply marking the mistake as incorrect, without giving the right answer.
  • Awarding grades for every piece of work may reduce the impact of marking, particularly if students become preoccupied with grades at the expense of a consideration of teachers' formative comments.
  • The use of targets to make marking as specific and actionable as possible is likely to increase student progress.
  • Students are unlikely to benefit from marking unless some time is set aside to enable students to consider and respond to marking.
  • Some forms of marking, including acknowledgement marking (checking that the work has been completed), are unlikely to enhance student progress. Schools should mark less in terms of the number of pieces of work marked, but mark better.
The researchers argue that there is an urgent need for more studies so that teachers have better information about the most effective marking approaches. 

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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