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Version 1.1 – Updated August 2021

Feedback

Overview

  • Influence: Feedback
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Feedback
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: Feedback has for more than a century been regarded as critical to skill and knowledge acquisition, and yet debates have emerged about the most effective means of providing feedback. As critical is the variability in feedback influences. Feedback in the classroom can be defined as “information allowing a learner to reduce the gap between what is evident currently and what could or should be the case”. Specifically, feedback is information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, self/experience) regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding that reduces the discrepancy between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 7
  • Number of studies: 798
  • Number of students: 13,396
  • Number of effects: 2,074
  • Effect size: 0.62

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Journal of Research in Science Teaching Yeany & Miller USA Effects of diagnostic/remedial instruction on science learning: A meta analysis 1983 Diagnostic feedback in college science 49 0 49 0.52
Psychological Bulletin Kluger & DeNisi Israel The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory 1996 Feedback 470 12,652 470 0.38
Human Performance Neubert USA The value of feedback and goal setting over goal setting alone and potential moderators of this effect: A meta-analysis 1998 Goals plus feedback 16 744 16 0.63
The Elementary School Journal Graham, Hebert, & Harris USA Formative assessment and writing: A meta-analysis 2015 Feedback on writing 27 0 27 0.61
Advances in Health Science Education Hatala, Cook, Zendejas, Hamstra, & Brydges Canada Feedback for simulation-based procedural skills training: a meta-analysis and critical narrative synthesis. 2014 Feedback for simulation skills 31 0 31 0.74
TOEFL iBT Research Report Biber, Nekrasova, & Horn USA The effectiveness of feedback for L1-English and L2 writing development: A meta-analysis. 2011 Feedback in ESL Writing and Reading 25 0 88 0.87
Child Education Jeong-Hwa & Byung-gee Korea A meta-analysis of feedback effects on academic achievement. 2019 Feedback 180 0 1,393 0.59
TOTAL/AVERAGE 798 13,396 2,074 0.62

Confidence

The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

  • Number of Meta-analyses
    • 1 = 1
    • 2 = 2–3
    • 3 = 4–6
    • 4 = 7–9
    • 5 = 10+
  • Number of Studies
    • 1 = 1–10
    • 2 = 11–50
    • 3 = 51–200
    • 4 = 201–400
    • 5 = 400+
  • Number of Students
    • 1 = 1–2,500
    • 2 = 2,501–10,000
    • 3 = 10,000–20,000
    • 4 = 20,000–100,000
    • 5 = 100,001+
  • Number of Effects
    • 1 = 1–100
    • 2 = 101–300
    • 3 = 301–600
    • 4 = 601–1,200
    • 5 = 1,200+
Confidences
Number of Meta-Analyses Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Overall Confidence
Confidence Factor 4 5 3 5 4
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