Staff Directory

Setting Objectives and Giving Feedback

Apr 5

FOCUS ON INSTRUCTION
This month my column will focus on the High Yield Strategy of Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback.

The following are key elements found in research about setting goals:
1. Goals help focus students.
2. Goals that are too specific can limit learning- especially if the goals relate to student behavior only.
3. Students are most often successful at meeting goals when they personalize the classroom goals and adapt them to their own personal needs and desires.

While it is important that teachers set goals for students, it is also important that the goals be flexible enough to provide students with opportunities to make these goals attainable and meaningful to themselves. Learning contracts or providing students with various ways to demonstrate their achievement are ways that teachers can provide students with flexibility.

The following are key elements found in research relating to providing effective feedback to students:
1. Feedback needs to be corrective in nature- it should provide students with explanations about what they are doing correct and what/how they can improve.
2. Feedback should be timely- the sooner it is provided after a student completes the task, the greater its impact on future learning
3. Feedback should be tied to the learning objective- not to how well, or poorly, other students did in the class
4. Students should be encouraged to provide some of their own feedback.

Teachers can increase learning potential with specific research-based findings in this area. Research states the following:

 Regular effective use of setting objectives and giving feedback leads to an increase of 10 to 20 percentile points in student acheivement.
 The use of various types of tools in the classroom can help make this increase a reality. In the classroom you might see things like the following taking place:
o Student reflection sheets
o Student portfolios
o Learning Contracts
o Rubrics/scoring guides
o Self- rating scales
o Goal- setting sheets
o Assignments with a means of letting students know if they are right track as opposed to a formal grade or mark on every assignment (IE. A green check, or smiley face)

You can find more information about these strategies on websites such as:

http://www.slideshare.net/MurrayGirl/marzano-setting-obj-and-providing-feedback

http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/VSTE/2008/7objectivesandfeedback.htm