Effective feedback to mathematics students

01 November 2017

What are the characteristics of effective feedback to mathematics students?

• Feedback is important to mathematics learning but can have both negative and positive effects
• Feedback can provoke cognitive, motivational or metacognitive change
• Comparing students to themselves or against criteria is more effective than comparing them to one another
• Giving students grades only may be ineffective; specific and immediate comments about their processes are more effective
• Effective feedback gives focused information on performance against clearly defined goals
• Verbal and audio feedback can be useful alternatives to written feedback
• Peer and self-assessments can be effective, provided students have clear information
• Only marking answers as right or wrong does not help with error correction or encourage good mathematical communication
• Model answers or past student answers can be helpful