Focus on Formative Feedback

By Valerie J. Shute. 2008

1,467 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article reviews the corpus of research on feedback, with a focus on formative feedback—defined as information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify his or her thinking or behavior to improve learning. According to researchers, formative feedback should be nonevaluative, supportive, timely, and specific. Formative feedback is usually presented as information to a learner in response to some action on the learner’s part. It comes in a variety of types (e.g., verification of response accuracy, explanation of the correct answer, hints, worked examples) and can be administered at various times during the learning process (e.g., immediately following an answer, after some time has elapsed). Finally, several variables have been shown to interact with formative feedback’s success at promoting learning (e.g., individual characteristics of the learner and aspects of the task). All of these issues are discussed. This review concludes with guidelines for generating formative feedback.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/281db35aa3b786210b13453cb0223fd920f61ff1

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Education

Citations in the corpus

Flaws in current human training protocols for spontaneous Brain-Computer Interfaces: lessons learned from instructional design (2013, methodology): “…the student Matching BCI training protocols (Hattie and Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008) to users’ characteristics It should be noted that such suggestions are only based on theory, and will need to be formally validated. for different people (Hattie and Timperley, 2007; Merrill, 2007; Shute, 2008).”
Classroom Assessment to Support Teaching and Learning (2019, background): “Yet a striking finding from the literature is that in one-third of studies, the effect of feedback is negative compared to controls with no feedback (Kluger and DeNisi 1996; hattie and Timperley 2007; Shute 2008).”
The impact of formative peer feedback on higher education students’ academic writing: a Meta-Analysis (2018, methodology): “Based on the definition of peer assessment by Topping (1998) and the definition of formative feedback by Shute (2008), formative peer feedback in this study is defined as ‘all task-related information that a learner communicates to a peer of similar status which can be used to improve his or her…”
The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback (2018, positive): “Students need motivation, opportunities and means to act on feedback (Shute 2008).”
When feedback signals failure but offers hope for improvement: A process model of constructive criticism (2018, background): “Research has overwhelmingly supported performance feedback as one of the most influential factors in learning (Brown, Harris, & Hartnett, 2012; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Kluger & Denisi, 1996; Shute, 2008; Winstone, Nash, Parker, & Rowntree, 2017).”
A Framework for Analyzing Feedback in a Formative Assessment System for Mathematical Modeling Problems (2012, methodology): “The expert’s feedback was highly task-specific and team solution related as recommended in the literature (e.g., Shute, 2008).”
Student perceptions of assessment feedback: a critical scoping review and call for research (2020, background): “However, the focus of much of the feedback research remained on identifying how to provide ‘effective’ feedback (Shute, 2008), with limited consideration of the student perspective, and their agency in deciding whether and how to engage with feedback (Handley, Price, & Millar, 2011; Lipnevich et…”
A Meta-Analysis of Negative Feedback on Intrinsic Motivation (2018, methodology): “Instructional feedback, or feedback geared toward task improvement, is known in the field as a variety of terms: formative feedback (Shute 2008), corrective feedback (Hattie and Timperley 2007), constructive feedback (Duijnhouwer et al. 2012; Fong et al. 2016), and effectance-relevant feedback…”
From feedback to revisions: Effects of feedback features and perceptions (2020, background): “For example, high-achieving and low-achieving learners, or high and low self-efficacious learners may interpret or respond to feedback differently (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008).”
Explanation Feedback Is Better Than Correct Answer Feedback for Promoting Transfer of Learning (2013, background): “Although prior research has identified many factors that influence the efficacy of feedback (for reviews, see D. L. Butler & Winne, 1995; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996; Shute, 2008), the content of the feedback message is arguably the most important aspect of any feedback procedure”