Improving Student learning? Research evidence about teacher feedback for improvement in New Zealand schools

Abstract

The importance of giving both evaluative and descriptive feedback to improve learning and achievement has been confirmed through research. This paper draws on assessment and feedback research to interrogate the evidence about how well teachers use feedback in New Zealand classrooms. It reveals that there is very little New Zealand research that investigates NZ teachers' use of feedback. Those studies that do investigate teachers' use of assessment information show that very little of the information gained from assessment is used to inform students about how to improve. More often teachers praise students, give unspecific information about their work and use the data gathered about students' competence and skills for school-wide aggregation and evidence of meeting targets. Questions are raised about why this might be the case, how professional development might be implicated in this and how the situation might be improved through wider policy alignment at both local and national levels.