The Importance of Immediate Feedback
Robert Marzano and associates called out feedback as one of the keys to improving student learning in Classroom Instruction That Works in 2004 (revised in 2013), based on meta-analysis of other research studies based on student learning in classrooms. This made intuitive sense to educators because for children to learn, they need to know if their assumptions based on the instruction are correct or incorrect. Neuroscience has offered strong research evidence about how the brain learns and the important role that feedback plays. Author Judy Willis summarizes it this way:
“Only the students who risk making mistakes benefit from the nucleus accumbens and dopamine pleasure fluctuations. It is in response to the dopamine response to correct or incorrect predictions (answers) that increase brain receptivity to learning the correct response. This requires that immediate corrective feedback follow the students’ predictions. The brain motivation is to retain and reinforce the response that results in the pleasure or alter the incorrect information in the neural patterning network that resulted in the incorrect prediction and thus avoid the mistake negativity dopamine drop in the future. As will be discussed in the next section, this neural network strengthening or correcting are part of the processes of neuroplasticity “
Learning, by definition, is making neural connections in the brain. Willis points out that there are chemical releases in the brain in response to corrective feedback - and immediate corrective feedback is far more likely to impact the brain in this way than when there is a long lag time.
One of the great values of the new wave of educational technology is the immediate corrective feedback component. In the neuroscience class, when we took the weekly quiz, we would immediately receive feedback about whether the answer was correct and the correct answer was provided if we gave the wrong answer. On the Khan Academy site, when wrong answers are given, you get redirected (optional) to the optimal Khan Academy video to review the material. On Rosetta Stone, when you mispronounce a word, you are provided with the correct pronunciation: immediate corrective feedback.
This may seem impossible in the classroom, and it can be a significant challenge, but here are a few examples of how to make it work especially at higher levels. I had teachers that used mini-whiteboards for math warm ups. Students would hold up the board as they finished problems and the teacher would provide immediate feedback. It was pretty amazing to watch, but it worked (this teacher had some of the highest math scores in the district). Another teacher provided similar feedback in small groups when teaching phonics in a 1st grade classroom. Students rapidly connected letters to sounds to chunks to words and were reading quickly. Self-correction after tests can also be very effective. When teaching reading, I would often use this strategy when we worked on specific skills with short passages. Students quickly gained an understanding of how the questions worked and what the test designers were looking for. In writing, students may not be able to fully correct each other’s papers, but they can provide rapid feedback on what words were powerful. This can quickly lead to improved word choice and vocabulary development.
In many ways, the value add of school is not only the expertise of the teacher, but the potential for rapid corrective feedback. If you are a teacher, keep this in mind as you design your lessons.
“Only the students who risk making mistakes benefit from the nucleus accumbens and dopamine pleasure fluctuations. It is in response to the dopamine response to correct or incorrect predictions (answers) that increase brain receptivity to learning the correct response. This requires that immediate corrective feedback follow the students’ predictions. The brain motivation is to retain and reinforce the response that results in the pleasure or alter the incorrect information in the neural patterning network that resulted in the incorrect prediction and thus avoid the mistake negativity dopamine drop in the future. As will be discussed in the next section, this neural network strengthening or correcting are part of the processes of neuroplasticity “
Learning, by definition, is making neural connections in the brain. Willis points out that there are chemical releases in the brain in response to corrective feedback - and immediate corrective feedback is far more likely to impact the brain in this way than when there is a long lag time.
One of the great values of the new wave of educational technology is the immediate corrective feedback component. In the neuroscience class, when we took the weekly quiz, we would immediately receive feedback about whether the answer was correct and the correct answer was provided if we gave the wrong answer. On the Khan Academy site, when wrong answers are given, you get redirected (optional) to the optimal Khan Academy video to review the material. On Rosetta Stone, when you mispronounce a word, you are provided with the correct pronunciation: immediate corrective feedback.
This may seem impossible in the classroom, and it can be a significant challenge, but here are a few examples of how to make it work especially at higher levels. I had teachers that used mini-whiteboards for math warm ups. Students would hold up the board as they finished problems and the teacher would provide immediate feedback. It was pretty amazing to watch, but it worked (this teacher had some of the highest math scores in the district). Another teacher provided similar feedback in small groups when teaching phonics in a 1st grade classroom. Students rapidly connected letters to sounds to chunks to words and were reading quickly. Self-correction after tests can also be very effective. When teaching reading, I would often use this strategy when we worked on specific skills with short passages. Students quickly gained an understanding of how the questions worked and what the test designers were looking for. In writing, students may not be able to fully correct each other’s papers, but they can provide rapid feedback on what words were powerful. This can quickly lead to improved word choice and vocabulary development.
In many ways, the value add of school is not only the expertise of the teacher, but the potential for rapid corrective feedback. If you are a teacher, keep this in mind as you design your lessons.
