A presentation I delivered at the ASE East of England Area Conference - Harlow, 8th March 2014.

1. Feedback and Marking in the Science
Classroom
Ensuring the recipient does more work than the donor
• Doug Napolitano-Cremin
• Haverstock School, Camden.
• @sciteachcremin
• www.reflectivetandl.com

2. Overview
• Feedback – what the research says.
• Before the lesson.
• During the lesson.
• After the lesson.

6. Marking and Feedback – Why bother?
‘Feedback is among the most common features of
successful teaching and learning’.
John Hattie, Visible Learning for Teachers, 2012

9. Marking and Feedback – Why bother?
‘…it’s effects are among the most variable’.
John Hattie, Visible Learning for Teachers, 2012

10. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?

11. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• Feedback aims to reduce the gap between where the student ‘is’ and
where they are ‘meant to be’.
• Teachers need to have a good understanding of where pupils are, and
where they are meant to be.
• This should also be made explicit to pupils.
• Pre-assessment.
• Learning goals/success criteria etc.

12. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• However often we mark, what ever format our feedback takes, we
must ensure that the feedback we provide is acted upon by the
learner.
Feedback must, ‘…provide a recipe for future action’.
Dylan Wiliam, Embedding formative assessment, 2011.

13. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• It is not the form that
feedback takes but the
effect it has on learners.

14. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• Hattie describes 4 different levels of feedback:
1. Task and product.
• Correct or incorrect.
• ‘You need to go through what you have written, number the order in which things have
happened, and rewrite them in that order’.
2. Process.
• ‘…You’re asked to compare these ideas. For example, you could try to see how they are
similar, how they are different… How do they relate to each other’.
3. Self-regulation or conditional.
• Students monitoring their own learning.
• ‘Have you got any ideas why you got it wrong?’
4. Self.
• Praise!

15. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• Learning is enhanced if pupils learn to ‘become their own
teachers’.
• How can we do this through marking and feedback?
• Timing.
• Scaffolding.
• Ability is incremental rather than fixed.

16. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• In summary, feedback should:
• Provide a recipe for future actions.
• Cause thinking.
• Not be seen as an end-point.
‘Never grade students while they are still learning’.
Alfie Kohn.
• Be separate from praise.
• Be focused.
• Relate to the learning objectives.
• Be more work for the recipient than the donor.
• Less is more!

17. Marking and Feedback
Before the lesson
•Planning is key.
• Learning objectives/outcomes.
• Assessing progress.
• Next steps.

19. Marking and Feedback
During the lesson
•What are we doing in Science at
Haverstock?

21. Marking and Feedback
What does the research say?
• Feedback aims to reduce the gap between where the student ‘is’ and
where they are ‘meant to be’.
• Teachers need to have a good understanding of where pupils are, and
where they are meant to be.
• This should also be made explicit to pupils.
• Pre-assessment.
• Learning goals/success criteria etc.

22. Marking and Feedback
During the lesson

23. Target word Nucleus Fusion Fertilisation Sperm Cloning Identical Asexual
1. I don’t know the word
2. I’ve heard it before but I don’t
know what it means
3. I know something about it but
only in certain situations. I can’t
use the word easily
4. I know the word well. I can
explain it and use it
Score
Name: Date:
Word Learning Score
Score =

25. Marking and Feedback
During the lesson
•Dedicated Improvement
and Reflection Time

26. Marking and Feedback
During the lesson
Source:
AlexQuigley
http://www.huntingenglish.com/2013/06/16/i
mproving-written-feedback/

27. Marking and Feedback
During the lesson
Source:
David Didau
http://www.learningspy.co.
uk/assessment/marking-
act-love/

28. Marking and Feedback
After the lesson
•?

30. Marking and Feedback
Comments, questions, ideas

31. Feedback and Marking in the Science
Classroom
Ensuring the recipient does more work than the donor
• Doug Napolitano-Cremin
• Haverstock School, Camden.
• @sciteachcremin
• www.reflectivetandl.com