In this blog Sarah Dawson, Curriculum Leader for Design and Technology at Hathershaw College, champions strategic, student-focused feedback that fosters reflection, growth, and practical excellence.

The principles of the EEF Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning guidance report outlines recommendations to ​‘lay the foundations for effective feedback’. This concept of planning purposeful and sustainable feedback within our curriculum design has changed our approach to feedback in Design and Technology and is helping us to develop a culture centred on student reflection and improvement.

The National Curriculum for Design and Technology encourages students to adopt an iterative approach to their work with continually testing, evaluation and improvement at the centre of the design approach. ​‘Failing’ is an integral part of the design process and to support this, it is vital that students are open to receive feedback, are able to reflect on their own progress and are willing to explore ways to improve their work. In our design work we are expecting an idea to grow and this approach is what we try to replicate in our approach to feedback.

Just like many schools our Design and Technology curriculum works on a rotation system as we believe it makes best use of staffing expertise and gives students the full breadth of the curriculum. Traditionally at the end of each rotation students were provided with summative feedback, which often focused on the practical outcome they had produced. This feedback required a lot of teacher’s time and was rarely, if ever, responded to by students as feedback was often project specific and didn’t always translate to other areas of the rotation. Moving away from this system and implementing feedback based on task, subject and self-regulation as outlined in recommendation 2 of the EEF Guidance Report, has helped us to provide ongoing feedback that is based on moving learning forward, whilst better managing marking workload of teachers. Due to the variation of tasks in Design and Technology, feedback strategies need to be planned depending on their appropriateness for the type of task. For example, in a practical or design lesson modelling with a clear criteria and verbal instruction would be more beneficial than delayed written feedback.

Verbal feedback is an essential tool in Design and Technology as it provides students with instant feedback, which students can immediately respond to. This is particularly important during practical work as delayed feedback may result in the work or product moving past the point of improvement. For effective verbal feedback to take place it is vital that teachers continually circulate around the room and engage with students and their work. It has also been necessary for us to re-train our thinking to avoid making comments on personal qualities or traits for example ​‘that’s great, you’re really good at drawing’. Collaboratively, we have created a bank of verbal feedback comments to be used in lessons, not to script what staff should say but to give a starting point for how high quality verbal feedback will sound.

The development of self-regulation skills is vital in Design and Technology. To achieve excellence students must be able to follow routines and organise work with a high level of independence in both written and practical work. This is why self-regulation strategies are referenced in all types of feedback, whether this is verbally recognising a student following a practical task plan or written feedback acknowledging how the use of annotation has helped students improve the structure of their writing. Students are also encouraged to use teacher feedback to reflect on their own self-regulation and consider how these skills can be developed in the next rotation.

Clarifying this in our planning has helped us to prepare exemplar materials and criteria, which support students in achieving high quality work. Getting this correct in the intent stage means that our feedback links to the initial high-quality instruction, which in turn, supports discussions and makes communication between students and teachers clear. Students can also use these criteria to reflect on their own progress and set clear targets for improvement. To further support students in understanding what good progress looks like in Design and Technology we are currently working on creating assessment rubrics for each KS3 unit so that students know how they are currently working and what they need to do to improve. Again, planning how feedback will be delivered within our curriculum intent, allows us to triangulate between curriculum, assessment and feedback, providing a strong basis for our feedback methods and ensures a consistent approach across our faculty.

• D&T requires preparation and management of a large number of resources. Our feedback has been planned so that it is sustainable and considers staff work load.
• Although our D&T teachers have ownership of where feedback should be given, feedback is planned as part of our curriculum intent so that we have a consistent approach across the faculty.
• High-quality instruction including criteria and modelling helps to improve communication between teachers and students and forms a key part in our feedback strategy.
• The emphasis of our feedback in KS3 is formative rather than summative so that students can develop skills and ideas without the fear of making mistakes.
• Verbal feedback is an essential part of our feedback strategy. Our teachers circulate the room and plan the types of verbal feedback that will be given.
• Whole class feedback works well for the written aspect of Design and Technology. This can also develop transferrable skills such as extended reading and writing.
• As recommended by the EEF guide our feedback focuses on task, subject and self-regulation strategies and avoids personal or generic comments.