Dylan Wiliam on Getting Feedback Right

From the Marshall Memo #451

(Originally titled “Feedback: Part of a System”)

In this Educational Leadership article, British researcher Dylan Wiliam says that when a student receives feedback, there are eight possible take-aways, only two of which are desirable:

• If the student hasn’t yet reached the learning goal, he or she might:

• Increase effort
• Reduce aspiration
• Decide the goal is too hard
• Ignore the feedback

• If the student has reached or exceeded the goal, he or she might:

• Exert less effort
• Increase aspiration
• Decide the goal is too easy
• Ignore the feedback

This shows how difficult it is to get feedback right, says Wiliam: “The way [the student] will react to feedback is difficult, if not impossible, to predict; it depends not only on the feedback given, but also the context in which the feedback is given, and even the relationship between the recipient and the person giving the feedback.”

Is competition a helpful way to orchestrate feedback? If students are told they are falling short and believe the goal is attainable, competition might very well motivate them to increase their effort. A study of basketball teams that were one point behind at halftime showed that they ended up victorious more often than teams that were one point ahead at halftime. 

But competition can be counterproductive. When students don’t think they have a chance of succeeding, they often give up. Competition can even be bad for high achievers if they believe grades are more important than learning. Psychologists call this a performance orientation – students who adopt this mindset may avoid challenging situations, take the easy way to getting high grades – or even cheat. Students are more likely to adopt a performance orientation if they believe intelligence is fixed. “When students with this view of learning are given a task in the classroom, they rapidly make a judgment about their chances of success,” says Wiliam. “If they think there is a danger that they’ll fail while many others in the class succeed, they are likely to disengage from the task. After all, it’s better to be thought lazy than dumb.” Students with the growth mindset, on the other hand, see challenges as an opportunity to get smart. 

Given how tricky it is to give effective feedback, what can teachers do? For starters, make the classroom a safe place for mistakes. Teachers should also preach that smart is not innate; it can be attained through effective effort. “In this regard,” says Wiliam, “the most important word in a teacher’s vocabulary is ‘yet.’ When a student says ‘I can’t do this,’ the teacher adds, ‘yet.’” Wiliam has three additional suggestions:

• Downplay scores. “When students receive both scores and comments,” he says, “the first thing they look at is their score, and the second thing they look at is someone else’s score. One language-arts teacher got around this by writing comments on slips of paper and having students figure out which comments went with which essay.

• Focus on things that are within students’ control. “Telling a student to ‘be more systematic’ isn’t helpful.

• Make sure students are working harder than the teacher. One teacher told a student that five equations in a problem set were solved incorrectly and said, “Your challenge is to find them and fix them.” For students who had solved all the equations correctly, the teacher said, “Make up three equations for others to solve; one harder, one at about the same level, and one easier than the ones you’ve just solved.” 

“Feedback: Part of a System” by Dylan Wiliam in Educational Leadership, September 2012 (Vol. 70, #1, p. 30-34), www.ascd.org; Wiliam can be reached at dylanwiliam@mac.com.