A Better Feedback Prompt Needs a Better Target

New study: Specific feedback, with a caveat

On October 30, USC Rossier reported a study of nearly 1,000 teachers: a prompt to communicate high expectations led to more detailed feedback, but also more comments about students’ ability and effort—and small race- and gender-linked differences in some of those comments. The researchers say feedback should focus on students’ work and include concrete ways to improve. (Read the USC Rossier report)

The useful distinction for creative work: encouragement can open the door, but it isn’t a revision plan. Try feedback that names one thing the draft is doing, one specific next move, and what you want the audience to understand or feel. That keeps attention on the work—not a verdict about its maker. The study used unfamiliar students and math solutions, so how the pattern carries into other settings remains an open question.

What feedback prompt helps you improve a draft without turning critique into a judgment of its creator?