Feedback Is Worth 6 Months, Done Badly It Harms Progress

Everyone knows more feedback is better feedback — mark it all, mark it fully, mark it every lesson. The evidence disagrees, and says so on its first page: done badly, feedback can even harm progress. We read the EEF's guidance report Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning alongside the Teaching & Learning Toolkit's Feedback strand — one of the biggest single figures this show has covered, +6 months' additional progress on average (155 studies, high evidence security), sitting right next to that warning. What actually separates the two: feedback that targets the task or the pupil's self-regulation, not the person; written feedback used purposefully and time-efficiently rather than as a nightly transcription exercise; and a school policy that asks what the feedback is for, not just how often it happens.

Printable one-pager for this episode, free: https://theeducationcommute.co.uk/#newsletter-staff

Two free newsletters, one for staff and one for parents and carers, same evidence written for the person reading it.

Sources:

• Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning — EEF guidance report (11 June 2021, First Edition; Joe Collin & Alex Quigley) — https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/feedback
• Feedback — EEF Teaching & Learning Toolkit strand (155 studies; 4/5 padlocks) — https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/feedback

Disclosure: both voices on this show are synthesised (NotebookLM, Google); the research, reading and editorial judgement are done by a serving practitioner.

Actions for consideration:

• Read your school's feedback/marking policy against EEF recommendation six this week — does it ask what feedback is for, or only how often it happens?
• Swap one nightly "full comment on every book" habit for a purposeful, task-focused line with a required pupil response.
• Check whether written feedback in your subject is happening live, in the lesson, or only as an after-the-fact transcription exercise for a scrutiny folder.
• Don't assume written feedback beats verbal by default — judge both against the same test: does the pupil have to do something with it?
• Try the one-line, required-response swap on three books before rolling it out to a full set.

Strand: Teachers