Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

ON YOUR MARKS... James Crane considers the forms of feedback that PE teachers will find most helpful – and those likely to do more harm than good... A s PE teachers, we should be using a variety of feedback strategies for a number of different purposes. Ultimately, feedback has four main roles – to show students what they need to aim for, to keep them on the right path, to let them know whether they have got there or not, and to point them in the direction of the next step or target. The key component of any type of feedback is that it is a two-way process. It should not be seen as something the teacher simply delivers to the student. It is a process in which the teacher and the student pass information back and forth between each other. Closing the gap As teachers, we identify the ‘learning gap’ – the space between where students are now in their knowledge and skills, and where we want them to be – and then provide feedback aimed at closing that gap. The feedback we get from the students helps us to know exactly how to close that gap and enables us to plan what to do next. We should always use the feedback we get from students about how they are performing in our lessons to inform our future planning. One thought to keep at the forefront of our minds, articulated succinctly by DylanWiliam, is that “ Feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor ” (see bit.ly/ ts136-PE2). The feedback strategies we use should fit these principles: • Feedback that simply tells students what to do is unhelpful – ‘ When doing high jump, drive up with your inside knee. ’ This type of feedback compounds dependency. • Feedback should make students think about their work and how they could improve it – ‘ What do you need to do to ensure your lead leg doesn’t clip the bar on your way up? ’ This type of feedback develops autonomy. • Feedback should make students do something to improve. If it doesn’t achieve this, then it is a waste of time – ‘ Now you have identified that the lead leg is too close to the bar, re-mark your run up, practise the take-off element and correct your distances. ’ Self-checking In both practical and theory PE, there are some things that are either correct or incorrect (e.g. labelling the cardiac cycle, serving in badminton, definitions of the components of fitness, a lay-up in basketball). In theory lessons, the most efficient way to give students feedback is to go through the answers with them, asking them to check their work as you go. Students should get into the habit of amending their mistakes as you work through the answers. In practical lessons, this is usually down to the outcome of the skill. The feedback should be on the teaching points, so that students can self-check which teaching point they aren’t getting right, therefore impacting the success of the skill. In both practical and theory lessons, the teacher can scan the room and see how the students are getting on. From this, you can see if there are any common misconceptions or mistakes that the students have made, reteaching the topic or providing whole-class feedback if required. Following retrieval practice quizzes, you can get more detailed feedback on how the class has done by simply asking themhow many out of ten they got correct. The point here is that we don’t just want to know howmany a student got right; we want to be able to knowwhere students struggled, what students do and don’t know. This can be developed further by asking for hands up for a correct response after each question. This can be useful, as it gives feedback to the teacher on whether there is one particular topic or question that a lot of students are struggling with in terms of recall or understanding. This may require immediate intervention from the teacher. This approach is an effective form of feedback, as it gives both the teacher and the students instant feedback on performance (as individuals and as a whole class), requires students to address their mistakes, and most importantly, is manageable and sustainable for the teacher. LiveMarking Live marking is a highly effective strategy in both practical and theory PE. We want to give students feedback about their understanding of a specific concept or skill there and then. This will also limit the chances of misconceptions becoming embedded. While students are answering questions, look in their books, focusing on the current key learning for that lesson. Pose a question verbally, or write one in their book to correct a misunderstanding or develop their thinking further. In practical lessons, you can observe their performance of a task and ask questions to help focus their practice on areas for improvement. Ask them to respond, allow them time to think about it and “Toooften,PE teachers use ‘non-doers’as coaches,or to provide feedback forapartner” 78 teachwire.net/secondary