Using Comparison for Feedback

Comparison is natural human instinct 

I once, semi-jokingly berated my students for failing to come to conclusions and judgements in their essays. My frustration was, as I explained to them, to do with the undeniable fact that they are always making judgements – whether this be about the latest Netflix series, who they are friends with this week, or what lessons they like and don’t like. The point I was getting at, which is the main focus of this blog, is the fact that humans have an inbuild propensity for making judgements, and perhaps more importantly, making comparisons. 

There is a reason why wine tasting events are so popular. You give people two glasses of wine, and they can compare and tell you which one they prefer, without too much cognition. 

The question is, how can this natural comparative instinct be put to use in the classroom?

Students need to understand what they are comparing

“Answer B is the better paragraph”

“Why do you think that?”

“It’s longer”

I have had this situation more times that I would like to mention when delivering feedback. 

As an ECT I watched more experienced teachers use two paragraphs, getting students to compare really effectively, whereas as soon as I tried it, students used superficial comparisons similar to the one above. This leads me to two important points to avoid this:

-              Students have to have a clear idea of what they are looking for

-              Exemplars that you are comparing should be carefully selected

For example, you may give students three broad aspects of each paragraph that they are looking out for:

-              Examples

-              Evidence

-              Conclusions

To make sure that this is really effective, I would ensure that both paragraphs had lots of examples, evidence and conclusions, but the better paragraph would use more appropriate examples and evidence, and come to more nuanced conclusions.

Comparison allows us to generate a rubric 

In their recent book ‘Formative Action’, Kneyber et al. (2024) claim that using comparative judgements can allow dialogue in the classroom, which allows the teacher to co-construct a rubric for students to then assess their own work. 

For example, if we stick with the three aspects mentioned above, we might construct a rubric such as:

Examples – Examples are contemporary and embedded to ensure they support the points made

Evidence – Evidence supports the claims made using data from research

Conclusions – Conclusions are balanced, precise and come to a clear judgement.

The point is, that we generate this as a class, so students understand what words like ‘embedded’ and ‘balanced’ actually mean, as they have seen work that demonstrates this. 

Constructing the rubric as a class can take a large bulk of the lesson, but it is beneficial as it means students will really understand what they are looking for. 

As the class are comparing the two paragraphs in order to generate this rubric, the teacher will have to use questioning to work with the students to generate this. They should have a good idea of what they are looking for, but if students notice other worthwhile points, they can be added. 

Here are some example questions to the class:

How do they use examples differently?

Why might it be better to use more recent examples? Which paragraph uses more recent points?

Why is the evidence slightly limited in paragraph B? What does A do with the evidence that B does not?

Can we be clear about the conclusion in paragraph B? 

What is meant by the word balance? Do we see balance in either of these paragraphs?

Using whiteboards or cold calling is essential here, I also like students to take notes as we have this discussion, then get them to generate a simple rubric after the discussion on their whiteboards, before we refine it as a class.

  

Comparison can be used in a number of ways:

Above I have talked mainly about how we can use comparison to compare paragraphs or essays, but a key point is comparison can be used across a wide variety of areas, that I will briefly explain below

- comparing plans

Before the class start writing an essay, it is obviously essential that they plan, but often students have little idea what a good plan looks like. 

Students could look at two plans, think about what a good plan should do, then investigate if the plans fit this criteria. Again, class discussion is crucial here to generate the criteria of a good plan.

- comparing notes at the end of the lesson

Students are notoriously bad at taking notes, and it is worth comparing a good set of notes to a bad set of notes. 

It will be a useful to think with the students about what the purpose of taking notes is, and whether their notes are fulfilling this purpose. Going back to previous notes to add and improve is also a nice way to review previous learning.

- metacognitive processes

This one is really interesting, and I admit I have not mastered it yet, but I think it has the potential to be really powerful. The basic idea is you show the students two different thinking processes and get them decide which one is more useful and effective for the task in hand.

Here is the process: Present the students with a problem task, then show them two thought processes, perhaps one student who plans clearly, thinks about his conclusion and evidence, whilst the other students starts writing his introduction immediately with no idea how he is going to address the problem. Then the class discusses why the first student is thinking more clearly and will produce a better answer.

Work in progress, but certainly could be powerful for modelling the metacognitive thinking you want from your students.

 

 

I cannot imagine giving any feedback without using comparison. People are clearly natural comparison makers, and using this in a variety of different aspects of teaching can only be good for student learning.