What is the Difference Between Giving Feedback and Evaluating Students?
I have been interested in this topic for some time, but I am just now getting into researching the difference between "evaluating" students and giving students "feedback". Understanging that "evaluating" refers more to judging and assigning a grade and "feedback" is assessing the progress of student learning. Reading various articles helped me realize that it is quality and prompt feedback that will help my students reach higher levels of learning and independent thinking. The articles discussed how feedback is something given daily and should be communicated between the teacher and the student and evaluation is done at the end of learning. (I guess you could compare it to formative "feedback" and summative "evaluation", as Natalie so nicely said, the check up vs the autopsy :) Feedback is (and should always be) CONSTRUCTIVE and intended to improve student performance. According to my research, feedback should not criticize; but rather give specific comments on skills dones well and skills needing further work, "Feedback should be presented as a method of improvement rather than as a punitive step and used as a method of building up the learner and strengthening the professional relationship between learner and mentor."
My question to myself now is am I continually giving my students the prompt, specific and constructive feedback they need on a daily basis to improve their ability to apply Spanish? My hope is that I am.
I would love to hear some students' thoughts about what they feel helps them improve their skills/performance in various subject areas. Does a unit test do this?
I would love to hear some students' thoughts about what they feel helps them improve their skills/performance in various subject areas. Does a unit test do this?
Almost all of the research that I read agreed upon one thing, "If faculty and students are less focused on evaluation, they can be more focused on learning."
Labels: What is the Difference Between Giving Feedback and Evaluating Students?
posted by bkitch @ 10:38 AM
13 Comments:
I enjoyed and strongly agree with your comments. I’ve been meaning to reply for a while, but first wanted to find a book on assessment that I found particularly stimulating. It’s ‘Fair isn’t always equal: assessing and grading in the differentiated classroom’ by Rick Wormeli. It convincingly and thoroughly backs up what you say about the importance of ongoing regular feedback as being the most valuable kind of assessment, and has a whole lot of really interesting practical ways in which this can be made a part of our regular teaching practice.
I think that it is helpful at the end of tests to be able to learn the answers instead of just telling us what we got wrong. Mr. Hawthorne gives us a most missed topics quiz at the end of every test, I think that helps everyone alot!
Yes feedback is great. I learn when the teacher actually cares that I get and understand the subject than just give me a grade on my work and tell me it's bad.
I believe that the best type of feedback is when I physically sit down with the teacher and completely go over my work. That is the best feedback I could possibly get from a teacher. I like it when they write their thoughts on my paper. I dont like just seeing a grade. I learn most when they write why the answer is that way or when they explain the problem in their grading. It makes it easier to learn.
Evaluation is grading where feed back is telling someone how they did and giving them ideas. Recieving feed back should allow for that person to correct their mistakes where evalutation is a grade evaluating your future status.
I think that I agree with the feedback. I think that feedback helps a student learn about what they did wrong and what they can do to make their assignments better next time and what is expected. I think that evalutation is good but feedback it more meaningful.
In general, I definitely think that feedback is a much better way to learn. If I get a test back and there is a bad grade, I don't try and go back to fix the mistakes unless I have the chance to retake it. If I do get the chance to redo work and get a better grade, I learn much better because I actually go back and try and fix my mistakes.
When I receive a test or a paper back from a teacher with comments and a grade, I usually look at the grade first, if not only and sometimes totally ignore the comments. I know that for a lot of students, grades are really important. I believe that if teachers gave back a paper or a paper with comments and a grade and students then had the opportunity to make corrections they would. But only if their grade was (possibly) going to be raised.
I believe the best way to teach spanish is having quizes throughout the year, rather than big tests. Then when teachers give feedback on our quizes and we are able to fix the errors, that is when I learn the most spanish.
I believe that I learn best when I am able to correct my mistakes. This provides instant feedback and allows me to learn from what I didn't know. Also, I like when teachers write their thoughts on my assignments. This informs me on how they interpreted it, and how it differs from my own understanding. I believe that understanding of certain subjects is overlooked, and in todays society we put to much attention on grades.
I learned from "constructive" feedback. But by "construuctive" I mean when the teacher will actually sit down and explain why you missed certain questions or why you were marked off on a paper. It's best for me to learn through my mistakes but I also need to understand them. I believe that teahcers should be constantly providing feedback about how students are doing in order to further shape our minds
It is important that when teachers are giving feedback that it isn't all critizisms. If you only give critics on students work it will make the students feel worse about their work than they already did, because from my experience most students are already nervous about the work they have submitted. When taking tests I personally like to write the correct answer next to the question that I got wrong. It is helpful to me so that I when I look back to study that material (if we are allowed to keep the test that is), I know I have all the correct answers to study from. I also find it helpful to be able to go over the questions that I got wrong so that I know why I got the answer wrong and why the correct answer is what it is.
I agree that "feedback" and and "evaluating" students is important but it is hard to say how all teachers should handle classes because every student is so different, some kids may always learn from their misstakes but ohters never do. I know for me when I get a test back I like to know what I've done wrong but after that I probably won't go back to that test until the final or if I really need to, but I think test corrections are valuble to those who choose to take advantage of the opportunity to learn it again and get points back.
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