A strategy for feedback: pausing to scan and survey

An essential characteristic of feedback is how it progresses from observation of the pupils’ learning to an intervention opportunity that articulates how pupils can improve. By observing and pausing to survey pupils as they work first, teachers will be able to recognise where pupils are in their learning, how they are working and what strategies can be used to address stumbling blocks that are hindering progress.

Teachers should build in time to scan and survey the pupils working across the class. This process of observation enables teachers to identify which groups in a class most need feedback at a given time, and also what different sorts of feedback individuals in a group may need. It provides teachers with the intelligence to determine the most useful intervention and feedback to make, rather than making immediate and generic assumptions at the point when intervention has already become absolutely essential. More information on this issue can be found in Unit 7 of the Assessment for learning: whole school training materials: see Handout 7.4 (DCSF 1240-2005 GCD)

In addition, pupils need ‘thinking time’, particularly when engaged in experimenting with practical and creative ideas. Teachers should allow pupils to try to identify their own solutions before jumping in immediately to offer feedback. Pupils need to feel that the learning environment encourages risk taking, so that they feel confident expressing their own interpretation of their learning and discover their own routes to success.

Use Task 3 (Observing before intervening) to apply this strategy to your own teaching.

Task 3: Observing before intervening (45 minutes)

Consider a lesson or series of lessons that you will be teaching soon that requires pupils to compose. When pupils are exploring creative ideas, consider the ways by which you can gather evidence of their progress. Identify a time for ‘pausing to scan and survey’ before offering support and encourage pupils to recognise that this is a necessary time for creative experimentation. Listen in to various conversations, improvisations and musical explorations until you are satisfied that you know what processes are being followed by pupils. Scan, survey and take stock of the learning across the class and then decide which groups and which pupils in those groups need feedback, and use one of the strategies identified in the previous section to support them. Case study 1 shows how these were used in a lesson. After the lesson or lessons, analyse the impact of the ‘pause’. Were you able to gauge more accurately pupils’ learning processes and identify more clearly the specific next steps pupils needed? Was your feedback more effective as a result? Did pupils understand more clearly where they were in the composing process, and how to take the next steps?