Verbal vs Written Feedback

Feedback can be given in the form of verbal, written, informal, formal, descriptive, evaluative, peer and even self-assessment. In this blog, we’re focusing on the difference between verbal vs written feedback, and how you can make sure your feedback is effective.

What is written feedback?

Written feedback is physical. It’s a record of guidance to help your learners improve and grow in their learning. It’s the most obvious form of feedback and it can come from a variety of sources. Normally, written feedback should include praise, a look at what they did well and what can be improved as well as some next steps to help them with improving.

This type of feedback can be informal or formal and have a variety of different formats, such as:

• Reviews,
• Evaluations
• Comments on marked work
• Meetings or one-on-one sessions
• Peer assessment
• Or within emails.

A great advantage of written feedback is that the learner can refer to it frequently. On the other hand with oral feedback, the learner could forget what was said unless they were taking notes. Written feedback is also a great way to leave a paper trail that documents a learner’s progress. This is helpful to reference when tracking improvement and working towards a goal. Many people frame feedback as areas of progress and challenges, rather than using them as an assessment that’s both positive and negative.

Effective written feedback needs to be timely; it also needs to include where the learner has met the criteria, and if they have been successful.

What is verbal feedback?

Verbal feedback regularly includes spoken communication. This may come in the form of comments from the teacher, either to an individual, group or class. Verbal feedback is often more immediate than written. It’s usually given during or at the end of a task or activity. The impact of verbal feedback is higher than written and overall feedback.

Giving feedback verbally means that you can clarify and elaborate on what you mean instantly. Ensuring that any misconceptions aren’t made and that students can act upon the feedback given, straight away. Verbal feedback is just as important as written feedback. There needs to be a balance between them both.

What makes feedback effective?

Regardless of how you give your feedback, it needs to be effective. So how can you make it as effective as possible? Here are a few examples of how you can have more effective feedback.

Prioritise constructive feedback

Constructive feedback should provide an avenue for motivation, while also boosting productivity and engagement. This means you should mention the learner’s strengths and successes as well as things they need to improve and work upon. For this, you can use the praise sandwich!

Try not to focus on the grade

Students tend to focus more on the grade they get rather than the feedback given. You can decide whether to give feedback only on formative work, rather than a grade and feedback. Make sure you give the learners time to process the feedback and respond to it if they wish. You can also increase the opportunities for formal and informal feedback.

Easy to understand

Feedback, whether verbal or written should be communicated in a way that is understandable for the learner. It should be concise and specific so that the learner knows immediately how to take action and improve.

Here are our best tips and tricks to make your feedback understandable.

• Refer to examples within their work
• Try and avoid unnecessary jargon,
• Be direct and concise with the feedback,
• Separate feedback into bullet points, referring them to action points,
• Consider the level your students are at,
• Be mindful of learners understanding,
• Ensure feedback accessibility.

Consistency

To be effective, feedback must be consistent and ongoing. Keep your learners up to date with feedback on their performance and help keep them on track and with their goals. This allows the learner to change their performance to better achieve their goal.

Time specific

Feedback is the most effective when it’s given immediately after activities. This makes the learner more likely to remember the feedback. If you wait too long before giving the feedback, the learner may find it more difficult to connect the feedback with the action they completed.

Make improvement clear

You can refer to specific lessons or resources where any information was covered so they can revise and brush up on the content. Give out, or make specific resources available to learners so they can practice. Make sure you try and encourage engagement with formative assessments. This can be a way to help motivate students. As an assessor, you should also consider these tips.

• You can use the stop, start, change, and continue method,
• Give learners tips on what to fix, but also how to improve it,
• Try to avoid focusing on small or technical problems, these can be improved at a later date,
• If the learner’s language and expression are affecting their accuracy, try to identify particular points and give guidance surrounding those,
• Provide resources for learners with impairments to make it easier to understand.

Make it timely

When feedback doesn’t come in a timely manner learners may not find it useful. Due to time constraints, learners don’t have the time to apply the feedback and make the changes. Giving feedback in a timely manner is crucial to help learners develop and grow.

Timely feedback gives the learner a chance to process the feedback, respond to it if necessary and implement the improvements. It’s also important to help students understand that the feedback is more than just comments on their performance, and more of a process for them to improve.

Be aware of language

Try to prevent the use of negative words and phrases. There is a balance to writing feedback that needs to be found. Avoid personal comments, for example, ‘I felt like your intro wasn’t clear’. It’s better to make direct comments and references to certain criteria or to make more objective comments explaining why. For example, ‘your introduction was unclear due to a lack of X and this affected your demonstration of this criteria’. Explain why you don’t understand to help make it more simple for the learner.

Whether you’re an assessor, tutor or trainer, written feedback is just as important as verbal. Especially when you know how to give constructive and effective written feedback. If you have any questions about feedback, whether it’s written or verbal, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via email at training@brooksandkirk.ac.uk and we would be happy to help.