Does Enhanced Feedback improve progress of Pupil Premium Pupils?
Our Context
There is currently an extensive amount of research based evidence surrounding the spending of the pupil premium. Many of the interventions are currently being tried and tested in practise. Within school, we highly value interventions, like many providers, that are proven to get results for pupils and accelerate their progression and self confidence as learners. It is because of this that research has investigated the impact of ‘low cost’ stragetgy- feedback. Feedback and its value has massively increased in the last couple of years because educators are seeing the real benefit of bespoke, one-two- one time where pupils get either immediate feedback or much more detailed/comprehensive than was once applied. With this in mind, our school began to offer more bespoke 1:1 feedback, which we called ‘enhanced feedback’ with our pupil welfare officer, to our pupils that we believed had the highest need, in terms of limited progression and general disposition within the class. This worked well, with many of these children excelling and really feeling the positive benefits of the bespoke feedback and conversation about their learning. It is with this in mind, that as a school, CPD was rolled out to all Teaching assistants and learning supports assistants (see appendix A) with the aim that all pupil premium pupils would receive at least one session of enhanced feedback from their class teaching assistant/LSA per week in Maths and English.
Research based evidence
Sutton trust- is an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils (Sutton Trust, 2014) The Toolkit currently covers over 30 topics, each summarised in terms of their average impact on attainment, the strength of the evidence supporting them and their cost. It has been recommended by the Department for Education, Ofsted and the headteachers’ associations as a valuable resource in prioritising pupil premium spending.
Pedagogy
Feedback is any form of information given to the learner and/or the teacher about the learner’s performance relative to their learning goals. It should aim towards (and be capable of producing) improvement in students’ learning. Feedback redirects or refocuses either the teacher’s or the learner’s actions to achieve a goal, by aligning effort and activity with an outcome (Huat See, Gorard & Siddiqui, 2015). It can be about the learning activity itself, about the process of activity, about the student’s management of their learning or self-regulation or (the least effective) about them as individuals. This feedback can be verbal, written, or can be given through tests or via digital technology. It can come from a teacher or someone taking a teaching role, or from peers (EEF, 2015). Research suggests, that feedback can be highly effective on disadvantaged learners (Ryan, 2012). However, there are some studies that disprove this, claiming negative effects on pupils: it is therefore important that feedback is delivered in the best way, allowing time and circumstances to be conducive to achieving the best quality and outcomes (The Guardian, 2012). Additionally, the majority of research that has been conducted is through feedback in Maths and English, which is where the basis for this study lies.
Methodology: How should feedback be conducted?
Research suggests that providing effective feedback is challenging, suggesting that for it to be successful that it should be specific, accurate and clear (e.g. “It was good because you...” rather than just “correct”); compare what a learner is doing right now with what they have done wrong before (e.g. “I can see you were focused on improving X as it is much better than last time’s Y…”); encourage and support further effort and be given sparingly so that it is meaningful; provide specific guidance on how to improve and not just tell pupils when they are wrong (Abbott, Middlewood & Robinson, 2015). This is the way that feedback achieves the most success. As a school, this is the process that we decided to roll out:
- Pupil welfare team gathered a selection of their enhanced feedback to share during CPD
- Meeting with the TA/LSA’s was held to introduce the new strategy
- Set the expectation that all pupil premium pupils were to receive at least one enhanced feedback session per week in English and Maths
- Proformas for recording conversations and documenting in books where distributed
- Time for this to happen was given (half term/6 weeks)
- Monitoring was carried out (focusing on quality of feedback)
- Personalised feedback was given to staff
- Pupil interviews conducted to gain pupil voice
- Another ‘catch up’ meeting where staff brought examples to share and spoke about what was working and what was challenging
- Monitoring was carried out again (focusing on amount and quality)
- Data for the Autumn and Spring term was collected
- Evaluation of enhanced feedback will take place
Outcomes:
Data:
See Power Point
Evaluation:
See CPD notes