Feedback Method Comparison

For common misconceptions across a class, published practice evidence and school trials suggest it is at least as effective and far faster, because the feedback arrives in the next lesson and is acted on in front of the teacher. For individual coursework or exam pieces, individual comments still do something whole-class feedback cannot.

Usually for evidence rather than effect: a written comment is visible to a book scrutiny, an inspector or a parent, and spoken feedback is not. That is a real institutional need, but it should be stated honestly as an accountability cost rather than presented as pedagogy.

It works when pupils are explicitly taught how, using a structure and a worked example, and it degrades into politeness when they are not. The setup cost is real but it is paid once per class, not once per piece.