Feedback

1. The most important thing to remember about feedback is that it is generally beneficial for learners.
2. The second most important thing to remember about feedback is that
   it should be corrective. Typically, this means that feedback ought to
   specify what the correct answer is. When learners are still building
   understanding, however, this could also mean that learners might
   benefit from additional statements describing the “whys” and
   “wherefores.”
3. The third most important thing to remember about feedback is that
   it must be paid attention to in a manner that is conducive to learning.
4. Feedback works by correcting errors, whether those errors are detected or hidden.
5. Feedback works through two separate mechanisms: (a) supporting
   learners in correctly understanding concepts, and (b) supporting
   learners in retrieval.
6. To help learners build understanding, feedback should diagnose
   learners’ incorrect mental models and specifically correct those
   misconceptions, thereby enabling additional correct retrieval practice
   opportunities.
7. To prepare learners for future long-term retrieval and fluency,
   learners need practice in retrieving. For this purpose, retrieval
   practice is generally more important than feedback.
8. Elaborative feedback may be more beneficial as learners build
   understanding, whereas brief feedback may be more beneficial as
   learners practice retrieval.
9. Immediate feedback prevents subsequent confusion and limits the likelihood for continued inappropriate retrieval practice.
10. Delayed feedback creates a beneficial spacing effect.
11. When in doubt about the timing of feedback, you can (a) give
    immediate feedback and then a subsequent delayed retrieval opportunity,
    (b) delay feedback slightly, and/or (c) just be sure to give some kind
    of feedback.
12. Feedback should usually be provided before learners get another chance to retrieve incorrectly again.
13. Provide feedback on correct responses when:
    a. Learners experience difficulty in responding to questions or decisions.
    b. Learners respond correctly with less-than-high confidence.
    c. All the information learned is of critical importance.
    d. Learners are relatively new to the subject material.
    e. The concepts are very complex.
14. Provide feedback on incorrect responses:
    a. Almost always.
    b. Except:
    i. When feedback would disrupt the learning event.
    ii. When it would be better to wait to provide feedback.
15. When learners seek out and/or encounter relevant learning material
    either before or after feedback, this can modify the benefits of the
    feedback itself.
16. When learners are working to support retrieval or fluency,
    short-circuiting their retrieval practice attempts by enabling them to
    access feedback in advance of retrieval can seriously hurt their
    learning results.
17. When learners retrieve incorrectly and get subsequent well-designed
    feedback, they still have not retrieved successfully; so they need at
    least one additional opportunity to retrieve—preferably after a delay.
18. On-the-job support from managers, mentors, coaches, learning
    administrators, or performance-support tools can be considered a
    potentially powerful form of feedback.
19. Training follow-through software—that keeps track of learners’ implementation goals—provides another opportunity for feedback.
20. Feedback can affect future learning by focusing learners on certain
    aspects of learning material at the expense of other aspects of
    learning material. Learners may take the hint from the feedback to
    guide their attention in subsequent learning efforts.
21. Extra acknowledgements (when learners are correct) and extra
    handholding (when learners are wrong) are generally not effective
    (depending on the learners). In fact, when feedback encourages learners
    to think about how well they appear to be doing, future learning can
    suffer as learners aim to look good instead of working to build rich
    mental models of the learning concepts.

Some of the concepts and language in the above recommendations may
not be obvious until you actually read the research report. You can do
that by clicking the link below.