Purposes of providing timely and appropriate feedback:
- Behavioural, cognitive and constructivist theories approve that timely feedback is crucial to promote meaningful learning
- Regular, timely, effective and specific feedback assist students to reveal recondite learning processes, thereby reinforcing self-regulated learning strategies which support learning, improve outcomes and actualise the drive for lifelong learning
- Appropriate feedback encourages students to apply the meta-cognition processes (planning, monitoring, and evaluation etc.) to their learning activities in order to generate internal response and promote intrinsic motivation.
- Research shows that when students are provided with formative feedback, they are better equipped to regulate cognition, meta-cognition and affect, which sustains their persistence during learning tasks (Butler & Winne, 1995).
- Feedback which informs the student of their current status and how to improve can boost self-efficacy and achievement, even after students experience initial difficulty performing the skill (Schraw et al., 2006).
- Feedback is equally vital in schooling and performs a variety of functions including recognising, correcting, encouraging, challenging and improving student performance
- Providing stimulating feedback about students’ improvement, progress and extent of mastery in every lesson inspires students to reach their full potential
- Interactive technology’s immediate feedback motivates students and increases their learning confidence, and offers students’ sense of empowerment and accomplishment (Fudin, 2012).
- Feedback offered by digital resources inspire students to learn with enthusiasm and passion and contribute towards shaping a cohesive self-identity
- Providing reinforcement for correct responses and celebrating success on learning goals empowers students autonomy and positive functioning
- Inspiring feedback causes positive emotion and inspiration to try harder and set higher goals. Feeling good leads to creativity, efficient problem solving skills, intrinsic motivation and persistence. (O’Donnell et al., 2011, p. 477).
- Challenging feedback strategy: Challenge and feedback involve and satisfy the need for competence and this experience of competence need satisfaction motivates students to learn with enthusiasm (O'Donnell et al., 2011, p. 450).
- Appropriate feedback cultivates motivation and pleasure of optimal challenge in students
- Positive and constructive feedback encourages students to develop self-efficacy and confidence, and improve their overall scholastic achievements.
- Feedback that provides students with information about why they are successful or unsuccessful is more useful for improving performance than feedback that simply provides them with information about results.
- Corrective feedback: An important component of mastery learning is corrective feedback
- One main variable that is crucial in making goal setting effective is feedback. Goal setting enhances performance only in the presence of timely feedback. Feedback allows students to keep track of their progress towards a goal. Without feedback, goal-directed performance is emotionally unimportant.
- Feedback allows performers to judge their current level of performance: Am I below goal level? At goal level? Above goal level?
- The combination of goals with feedback produces an emotionally meaningful mixture
- Adopt two-way communication. Teacher to use democratic communication styles to elicit participation, respect individual differences, have a caring attitude, show interest in students, and provide positive or constructive feedback. Invite students to communicate their feelings or responses to tasks or a unit of work.