How to Give Feedback to Get Results From Students

Key Insights

Teachers spend hours providing thoughtful feedback but rarely see it lead to meaningful academic progress in the classroom. Feedback can induce much anxiety for students and trigger perceptions of threat and mistrust in their brains. As a result, students often dismiss feedback or shut down altogether.

EAB examined research from the fields of education, business, and neuroscience to understand what teachers can do to reduce perceptions of threat and make their feedback more actionable.

Watch this video from the District Leadership Forum to learn about the following six simple principles teachers can apply right away to increase the impact of their feedback on student performance:

1. Limit feedback to the 2-3 most critical skills
2. Allow students 1-2 opportunities to apply feedback before grading
3. Focus feedback on the student’s work, not the student
4. Avoid “sandwiching” critical comments between positive ones
5. Explicitly connect feedback to high standards
6. Prompt students to seek feedback on assignments