Research School Network: Effective Feedback – Austin’s butterfly for non-essay based subjects. Moving from task-based to subject-based feedback to enhance pupil progress.

by Katie Wills, Research Lead

During my first year as a teacher, one of my colleagues presented a teaching tip to demonstrate how to construct and deliver effective feedback and she did so by showing a clip entitled ​‘Austin’s Butterfly’. The clip represented the journey of a young pupil who had been tasked with drawing a butterfly. Each time he produced a draft of his drawing, he was given clear and purposeful advice about how to improve and consequently by the sixth draft he was able to produce a drawing of extremely high quality that was significantly better than his first attempt. This was extremely powerful for me as a young teacher but it also raised some questions about the nature of my subject and the feedback that I was giving within it. Unlike Art or essay-based subjects, often feedback that is given on assessments in PE or science is focused on the task or content that is being examined. Research conducted by Hattie and Timperley (2007), explains how feedback can be given on a range of levels. Task focused feedback will result in improvement in that task but is less likely to promote progress across tasks and therefore it is subject based feedback that is more effective. It appeared to me that subjects who had more commonality between assessment type, were more able to give subject feedback purposefully, when compared to the feedback I was giving on content-varying end of unit tests. Consequently I decided to invest time in creating a more subject based feedback method to be used in non-essay based subjects and below outlines the process I now take.


Step 1 – What mistake is the student making and importantly WHY is the student making that mistake?


When marking a test, I look for the mistakes a student is making across questions opposed to the content that the student doesn’t know within a question. I then categorise why I believe the student is making that mistake into one of three categories based on common reasons that mistakes are made – lack of knowledge, lack of exam content knowledge or poor exam technique. Of course, this is based on my perception and may not always be correct but when trained in what the different categories mean, students can start to categorise their own mistakes.


Lack of knowledge is often easy to identify in student work in blank questions, inaccuracies and misconceptions. The reason for this lack of knowledge could be due to no preparation, ineffective preparation or poor understanding. Lack of exam content knowledge is slightly more difficult to determine as it means the student does know the content but they don’t know the exact knowledge that is needed to score marks on that question. I find that students lose marks for this reason when they haven’t learnt exact definitions or they don’t include key terms that the mark scheme puts in bold. The reason for this mistake is students’ notes not highlighting the importance of these key terms or their revision not prioritising the learning of them. If teachers are knowledgeable about how their subject is assessed then poor exam technique is not too challenging to identify in student work. For example students may not have answered the exact question, not used a key structure in their answer or run out of time, however, the reasons for these mistakes are often very varied. Although as teachers we may not agree with it, completing exam questions with a variety of question words and structures requires a large amount of skills that we must prepare students for. Therefore the reason that students may be making exam technique mistakes is not being aware of the structure required in different questions, not practicing these skills enough or not practicing these skills in timed conditions.


Step 2 – Set a target for the student taking into account why they are making mistakes.


Across an assessment with a series of questions it is likely that students will have lost marks for a variety of reasons, however, it is important to set a target based on why they lost the most marks or on a weakness that needs to be prioritised. For me this starts as one of the three broad categories, as it provides a clear and memorable reason that students can use to focus their efforts. However, the target also has to contain more detailed information about why that category is a weakness for the feedback to be effective. For example, lack of knowledge may be the main category for two students, however, one is working extremely hard but struggling to understand the content whilst the other is not completing any revision due to poor motivation. Therefore even though both of their targets would start with ​‘Improve your knowledge by’ one would be encouraged to do so by using support videos that re-explain complex content whereas the other would be asked to improve their motivation, often with rewards and consequences. By framing the target in this way, students are receiving feedback about what they need to improve and how they can improve it before the next assessment despite the fact that this may be focused on different content.


Step 3 – Support the student in setting actions that will help them make progress towards their target.


This final step is something that I have given a lot more thought to recently, as I was finding that despite the fact I was providing students with targeted, subject focused feedback they were still making limited progress. After completing an assessment, it is important to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on how they will use your feedback. However, to do this effectively students have to take part in some high level self-evaluation and self-regulation, therefore it is important to provide support in this process. For me, this comes in the form of one-one conversations with each student, alongside a structured reflection sheet that encourages them to think through the actions they will take, when they will take them, what barriers they will face in the process and how they will overcome these barriers. Prior to the next assessment, students are expected to demonstrate what process they have made towards their target and, importantly, they must provide evidence of the actions they have taken. This process, although time consuming, has significantly increased the amount of targeted work that students are completing both in and outside of lessons to make progress in response to my feedback.