Feedback is a way to show appreciation, help improves skills, and ensure that people are on the right path. Feedback can include an assessment of performance and an explanation of what has been done well and what needs improvement.
Giving feedback is an important part of any professional relationship. However, as crucial as it may be, teachers in school might find it arduous to provide students with useful feedback on their work daily to help them improve their performance in school.
Feedback may also include recommendations for improvement and specific examples to demonstrate the point. At the same time, it can either be in the form of oral, or written formats or through demonstration. Feedback can either be a teacher to student, student to student, or student to teacher.
Hence, in this blog post, we will talk about two forms of feedback – Descriptive feedback and Evaluative feedback, and also navigate through some of the crucial examples.
Descriptive & evaluative feedbacks for students: Why are they crucial?
Feedback provides students with a sense of where they stand in their studies. Descriptive feedback tells the student what they are doing well and what needs improvement, while evaluative feedback tells the student how well they are doing.
Studies suggest that students who were low achievers fared better when they had a clear understanding of goals and steps they could take to improve their work. In addition, when the feedback was clear about their work, and not based on comparisons, competition, or ability, students profited from feedback.
Descriptive feedback deals with expected learning and addresses areas where there is difficulty in learning. It helps the learner to plan on the subsequent steps required and evaluative feedback is a summary for the student of how well she or he has performed on a particular task or during a term.
Descriptive feedback examples for students
Descriptive feedback is one that provides specific information, in the form of written comments or verbal conversations, that help the learner understand what she or he needs to do in order to improve.
The feedback that supports learning provides an option for the learner to decide what and how to receive that feedback. When taken positively, it is a very useful tool. Here are a few examples of descriptive feedback:
- What powerful words you have used to describe the story! Your words create pictures in the mind of your reader. Moreover, these words surely describe the power of your creative mind to turn words into pictures beautifully.
- This is a very good essay and you have covered all the main points. Which are the points you think you can elaborate on? The essay was extremely intriguing to read and kept the interest of the reader throughout.
- Your answer is really good. I found two spelling errors, just see if you can find them. Other than that, the tenses are perfectly used and there is no such grammatical error, which is proof that you have a good understanding of the language.
- A very good job of marking all the countries on the map. Do you think you can name a few capitals? Overall, the precision of the marks on the map is quite accurate, except for some minor errors. Good job!
- I agree with all the points in your essay. How would you like to conclude it? The conclusion can bring closure to the topic. Other than that, the points are very well explained, and bring curiosity to read further in the minds of the readers.
- The colors used in your painting are so bright. The picture looks lifelike. Love the way how you have presented the sky. It talks a lot about the creative mind and the skill of being an artistic individual. I especially like the way the painting speaks volumes about nature and its vitality.
- That is the right example you have cited. Can you add more? The right examples can make this piece even more precise and detailed. Overall, good work has been done.
- Good job. You completed the assignment on time. Moreover, the work does not look like it is done in haste. The thoughts are conveyed very beautifully, and so is the handwriting, which proves that you took your own sweet time to complete the assignment with maximum precision.
- You put a lot of thought and effort into your ideas. That is absolutely amazing! That is the reason why you have ideated the whole piece so beautifully, that it looks very well carved and thought about. Kudos!
- You concentrated on your math problems today. That is so good! The piece presented today is proof that you are concentrating on solving maximum problems in the least time, which will help you in the upcoming examinations. All the best!
Evaluative feedback for students
Evaluative feedback provides information about learning but does not convey the information and guidance that students can use to improve. This feedback depends entirely on the action taken.
- You have shown remarkable improvement. As compared to last time, there are minimal errors, and these too can be solved with a little more concentration and ideation. Keep it up!
- You can do better. Of course, there is a lot of improvement in your work, but seeing your potential, the piece can surely get better with time when you start focusing more on the particular subject. Nonetheless, good work!
- You have done well this semester. Your performance in English and science have been remarkable, as you have scored very well in these two subjects. Moreover, there is a rapid improvement in other subjects like Social Science. Best of luck!
- The project has better points this time. It is speaking for itself that you have taken your sweet time and concentrated well to bring out the best this time. The assignment is much better than the previous ones, and the improvement is remarkable.
- You have to work harder in Math. There is a lot of underlying potential in you, as a student. If you focus a little bit more and be more punctual in the classes, you can perform much better in the topics you feel challenged at the moment.
- You have scored 78%. While you have scored well in French and Math, there is still so much room for improvement in English, Science, and Economics. Work harder, and the sky is the limit for a bright student like you.
- Write the letter again. The letter format is inaccurate, and there are several spelling mistakes. Please check the address once more, and format the letter in a way that the transitions are smooth.
- The equation is solved right. This proves that you have a good understanding of the concept and are working hard to get good grades. Keep it up!
- Your results are good. The handwriting is beautiful, and the points are very well presented. You have taken a good time to solve each problem with utmost precision, and that is one of the key reasons behind your amazing scores.
- Good work! I am proud of you. You should be thrilled with your progress. As compared to the last time, there is exceptional growth visible. Keep it up!
Conclusion
To wrap up, feedback is essential for an individual in order to improve and work on self. Evaluative feedback is an effective way to evaluate someone’s performance or progress. At the same time, descriptive feedback provides students with detailed, specific information about the areas of improvement. It offers up specifics about what happened and how the observer felt about it. There are many different methods of giving this type of feedback, including providing answers to questions and noting strong and weak points. Moreover, it acts as words of encouragement, also, who doesn’t enjoy a word of appreciation or praise?
I am Shweta Sharma. I am a final year Masters student of Clinical Psychology and have been working closely in the field of psycho-education and child development. I have served in various organisations and NGOs with the purpose of helping children with disabilities learn and adapt better to both, academic and social challenges. I am keen on writing about learning difficulties, the science behind them and potential strategies to deal with them. My areas of expertise include putting forward the cognitive and behavioural aspects of disabilities for better awareness, as well as efficient intervention. Follow me on LinkedIn