Research School Network: BLOG: Part 1: Moving Away From Marking Policies: The Principles Behind Effective Feedback Part 1: The Principles Behind Effective Feedback

Feedback takes many different forms within schools, and, for many teachers, the term feedback may be more closely associated with information they receive about their own performance than information they are themselves providing for pupils. For the purposes of this discussion, by teacher feedback, we mean information relayed by the teacher to pupils which focusses on developing and improving their knowledge, understanding or ability.

I have spent over fifteen years in schools where feedback was almost entirely synonymous with written marking. Ben Newmark has referred to the ​“fetishisation of marking” and it is undoubtedly true that many teachers have spent vast swathes of their careers working in schools with overly complex and detailed marking policies which prescribe the exact frequency, type and length of written comments, the colour of pen that must be used and then further comments to respond to the pupil’s response to the original written comment.

Many school leaders have for too long laboured under the misapprehension that regularly and neatly marked books were an indication of high-quality teaching, or a clear sign that their staff were somehow more hard-working and passionate about the job. Despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary, this has remained a frustratingly difficult mindset to shift – not least for the numerous class teachers who have been working under the intense pressure that regular work scrutinies and ​‘book looks’ bring, dreading that a set of books which have not perhaps been marked as recently or in as much detail as another teacher’s will result in the tarnishing of their reputation and standing amongst the senior leadership.

Teachers themselves have admittedly been at times complicit in the perpetuation of such policies. For some, marking has been and still is seen as an essential and intrinsic part of teaching – it’s something teachers just do. The grim prospect of sitting down late in the evenings or over the weekend in front of a seemingly endless pile of books is an undeniably unattractive part of teaching, but what else is supposed to happen when the children have finished their work? Other teachers actively enjoy extended marking. Jo Facer has written of her initial reluctance to eschew marking, and how satisfying it was ​“leaving lovingly crafted comments in an array of coloured pens and stickers that just looked like it would work so well”. Some teachers hold firmly to the belief that marking ​‘makes a difference’, they wonder how else their pupils will know what to do, and feel the need to show them individually that they care and value the work.

Another factor behind the persistence in the belief that a multitude of marking is a proxy for good teaching is Ofsted, who have undoubtedly, if not deliberately, played a role in shaping many schools’ marking policies. Despite publishing a number of documents in which they repeatedly state that they ​“do not expect to see any specific frequency, type or volume of marking and feedback; these are for schools to decide through its assessment policy” (Ofsted ​‘myth-busting’ document – 2015) and a reiteration in 2019’s Education Inspection Framework, this seemingly positive message has been clouded by a number of individual school reports which have continued to overtly praise detailed and lengthy written marking and quite clearly criticise its absence.

Even after their myth-busting document had been updated in 2015, a study of Ofsted reports over the following year from a range of schools found that in only 15% of reports was there no mention at all of specific approaches to giving feedback. 60% of reports were explicit in their approval of detailed written marking, while a further 25% provided an implicit, yet clear endorsement of marking. (http://www.andallthat.co.uk/blog/)

These reports understandably did little to assuage the fear facing many school leaders that Ofsted would welcome their proposed no-marking policy, even as such ideas were beginning to circulate more widely.

The rise of blogging and edu-twitter, alongside a general increase in the availability of research and evidence-informed case studies across education over the last decade, has happily moved the narrative around marking forwards, and there have been many enlightened teachers and leaders who have attempted to dispel the myths around written marking and save their staff from the oppressive shackles of detailed marking policies. Clare Sealy, Michael Tidd, Jo Facer, Daisy Christodoulou and Andrew Percival, to name just a few, have all published influential blogs and papers calling for an end to marking policies, and sharing both generously and informatively how their own schools have implemented a more workload-friendly and child-centred approach to giving feedback.

As my own teaching career progressed and I began to read more widely and question more of the practices in the schools which I had hitherto accepted unconditionally, I became particularly influenced by the words of Joe Kirby, and the paradigm he presents of hornets and butterflies.

Hornets are high-effort, low-impact ideas, and butterflies are low-effort, high-impact ideas. In schools where we want our staff to be less exhausted and therefore more able to teach, and teach well, we must be constantly mindful of hornets. Written marking is a hornet – each written comment helps one pupil, once. It has a low ratio of impact to effort, and a high opportunity cost. Verbal feedback, in contrast, when it is timely, frequent and acted upon becomes a butterfly – the ratio of impact to effort is much higher. Hornets and Butterflies: How to reduce workload | Joe Kirby (wordpress.com)

While acknowledging that teachers still need to read books, mark exams and correct certain mistakes such as spellings during lessons, Kirby was advocating in 2015 for written marking outside of lessons to be scrapped altogether. Having established this practice at Michaela school in London, he was able to present a tantalisingly appealing scenario around feedback and marking for the majority of teachers across the country. ​“No teacher has to take home books in evenings, weekends and holidays; no manager is scrutinising pupil books for frequent teacher comments; no teacher is desperately marking books at the last minute before an impending book scrutiny. Instead, teachers are trusted. Teachers can focus on teaching well, ensuring every pupil is understanding and remembering, and helping their pupils love their subjects. Pupils are motivated, working harder than they ever have before, and improving their writing fast, as they take responsibility for checking and improving it.” Marking is a hornet | Joe Kirby (wordpress.com)

As a result of the collective work and writings of the individuals named above, I had become convinced by the end of the 2010s that our school needed to push aside our well-worn marking policy in favour of a feedback policy. However, anyone who has attempted to enact significant change in schools will recognise the many challenges and barriers that exist when aiming to establish new systems or procedures, especially when you are proposing the removal of what many teachers see as a cornerstone of their practice, even if it is one you would expect the overwhelming majority of staff to be glad to see the back of.

Join us for part 2 of this blog series where Mark shares a summary of the guidance report and exemplifies how his school has put these recommendations into practice; Including their revamped feedback policy.