You can use questions as a type of feedback, although they do not work in the same way as traditional feedback.

The sentence types make different demands on the individuals who receive them.

To demonstrate, consider these two examples:

1. You need to develop your points in more detail. Try to include at least one example each time.
2. How could you develop your points in more detail? Could examples be an option?

A is an example of traditional feedback. The sentences direct the receiver to act in certain ways; they are almost like commands.

B is an example of feedback in the form of questions. The sentences invoke the typical rules of questioning; they invite the receiver to respond.

The difference is subtle.

Using questions means you are asking learners to do a little more of the work.

This can be challenging; it can also be rewarding.

In the example above, A provides learners with a clear understanding of what needs to be done.

B implies something similar, but a degree of ambiguity remains.

The learner is asked to think for themselves and to make a decision, this being prompted and directed by the teacher’s choice of questions.

There is no definitive method for judging when questions are appropriate.

Some teachers regularly deliver feedback in the form of questions.

Others do so rarely.

And a good number use a mix of question-based and traditional feedback.

If you like the idea of delivering feedback in the form of questions, here are a set of exemplars you can use and adapt, divided into ten categories.

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Mistakes

1. How can you tell this is a mistake?
2. Which of the mistakes can we learn the most from?
3. Why do you think you made these mistakes?
4. How could you avoid making the same mistakes in the future?
5. What does this mistake tell you about what you need to do next?
6. Why is this part of your work the bit that caused you to go wrong?
7. Which of the mistakes are easiest to fix?
8. How can you avoid similar mistakes next time?
9. What changes could you make so you pick up on mistakes before you hand your work in?
10. How could this bit of your work [the mistake] look different? What would you need to do to change it?
11. I’ve identified three mistakes. Can you find them and tell me why they are mistakes?
12. How could you use your mistakes to improve your next piece of work?
13. Can you come up with a way to avoid making these same mistakes again?
14. What might explain why you made these mistakes? How could you rectify them?
15. Where have you made the most mistakes? Why do you think this is – and what do we need to do next?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Process

1. How could changing your planning improve your work?
2. Would checking have made a difference? Why?
3. What steps did you go through? Did you miss any out?
4. Could you have spent more time on designing? What difference might it have made?
5. When did you get distracted? Can you tell from looking at your work?
6. How did you decide on this approach? What other approaches could you have considered?
7. What was the most important decision you made? How did you make it?
8. What order did you do things in? Was that the best order? Why?
9. How did you apply the formula? How does this compare to my method?
10. What do you think you missed? If you’d done things differently, would you have missed it?
11. Where do you think the problem started? Was it in the planning?
12. Why didn’t you achieve what you wanted? Did you have too many things to think about?
13. If you were going to do it again, what would you do differently?
14. How important was taking careful notes during the experiment? Why?
15. Could you have taken longer on this bit? What difference might it have made?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Content

1. What’s missing here? Go back over your notes and tell me.
2. What stopped you using more keywords?
3. How could you check the information is right before handing in?
4. Which of the studies did you spend least time on? Why?
5. Why did you choose to focus on only one area of the play?
6. What questions did you ask yourself when you read the source? What questions could you have asked yourself?
7. How could this be more detailed? What three changes could you make?
8. Have a look at the bits I’ve circled. Why might these need looking at a second time?
9. How might an expert tweak this so that it was more precise?
10. Which of your answers is most accurate? Why are the others less accurate?
11. Did you follow the recipe? How can you tell?
12. Does this explain or describe the idea? Can you remind me of the difference?
13. Why are these examples of incorrect usage? How could you ensure you use them correctly in the future?
14. Of the three examples, which is the weakest? Why?
15. What makes your second answer better than your first?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Understanding

1. Which bit did you understand the least? Can you see evidence of this in your work?
2. How could you try to improve your understanding of X?
3. What do you need to do next to understand X better?
4. Where did your understanding let you down? What could you do to change things?
5. Did you understand the task before you started? What could you do next time?
6. How could you show me more of what you understand?
7. In what ways could you change this so I can better see what you understand?
8. Where did your understanding of the formula start to run up against problems? Why do you think this was?
9. How did your understanding change as you were writing the essay?
10. Could you have used some planning time to further develop your understanding? What impact might this have had?
11. What does good understanding look like?
12. When you used the keywords, did you understand all of them?
13. Which question was hardest to understand? What can you do to change this?
14. Can you show me which bits you understood the most and which you understood the least?
15. Is your understanding the same now as when you started the work? Why?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Targets

1. Where did you best meet your target? Where could you improve things?
2. How has your work changed due to focussing on your target?
3. What else could you have done to meet your target?
4. How will you continue to meet your target?
5. What improvements can you see in your work? Why are they improvements?
6. How did your target change your approach?
7. What differences did your target give rise to?
8. Where is the evidence that you implemented your target? Why is it evidence?
9. What makes your work different now that you have met your target?
10. Where were you thinking most about your target? Where least?
11. What can you learn from trying to implement your target?
12. What do you think your next target should be and why?
13. How could you challenge yourself with a new target?
14. Can you suggest a target to aim for next?
15. Was your target too easy? Why? How could it have been more challenging?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Knowledge

1. Where did you struggle most for knowledge? What could you do to improve things?
2. Were there certain things you didn’t know? How could you find out about them?
3. What made it difficult to apply your knowledge? How could you work on this?
4. What do you know now that you didn’t know before? What do you need to know next?
5. Why was it difficult to use your knowledge here?
6. What gaps in your knowledge can you identify?
7. How would you rate your knowledge for each of the different sections?
8. Could you have included more detail here? What difference would that have made?
9. Why did you include lots of detail at the start but not at the end?
10. What could you do to ensure you have more examples to use in the future?
11. How could you improve your vocabulary, so you have more technical words to use?
12. If this explanation is wrong, how could you find out the right one?
13. If this isn’t the best theory for explaining it, where else could you look?
14. If this analysis isn’t sufficiently in-depth, what else will you need to learn about?
15. If this comparison doesn’t work, what further research might you need to do?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Editing/Rewriting

1. Which section do you think needs the most rewriting?
2. How could editing have improved this?
3. Can you choose one question to rewrite? Why that question and how will you improve it?
4. Why might this sentence be better if you wrote it differently?
5. If you had to edit your plan, what changes would you make to the first section?
6. Can you tell me how you could rewrite the conclusion, so it is punchier?
7. How might more editing in the design phase have resulted in a better product?
8. Which equations should we rewrite? Why?
9. If you had to start again from scratch, what changes would you make and why?
10. How could you use what you learned from editing to improve your future work?
11. Can you rewrite the character’s speech, so it sounds more realistic?
12. How might editing have prevented these mistakes?
13. How could you use editing to stop these problems recurring in the future?
14. Can you rewrite your answers to questions 3, 7 and 11, but this time focus on applying your target?
15. Can you tell me three ways that editing would improve this piece of work?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Effort

1. Where did you put in the most effort? Why?
2. Where did you put in the least effort? What impact did this have?
3. How could you sustain your effort for longer next time?
4. How would you judge your level of effort? What could you do to raise this?
5. Did you focus your effort all the way through? Why?
6. Can you show me the areas where you put in the most effort? What made you do this?
7. Why did your effort drop off at the end? What can you learn from this?
8. Could you have managed your effort levels differently?
9. What made it difficult for you to maintain your effort?
10. How would this work be different if you’d put in more effort?
11. When did your effort levels start to dip? What could you do differently next time?
12. Why did your effort levels go up and down during the task? What can you learn from this?
13. Where was it most enjoyable to put in a high level of effort? Why?
14. Can you explain what it felt like to keep trying when it got tough? How can you make sure you do this again in the future?
15. If you had to judge your effort on a scale of 1-10, what would you go for and why? How could you get a 10 next time?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Challenge

1. How could you challenge yourself next time?
2. What would a challenging target look like based on this piece of work?
3. What part was most challenging and why? What can you learn from this?
4. How did you keep yourself going when the challenge increased? What could you do next time?
5. How much were you in control of the level of challenge? What evidence is there for this?
6. What impact did the level of challenge have on your work?
7. Can you show me where the level of challenge was too high? What can we learn from this?
8. What strategies did you use to deal with challenges? Can you use these again in the future?
9. Where was it hardest to implement your target? What made this a challenge?
10. When did you feel the level of challenge getting too much? What does this tell us?
11. Why did you settle for the easier challenge? How could you push yourself in the future?
12. How did you approach the challenge? Would a different approach have been better?
13. If you had to set yourself a more challenging task, what would it be and why?
14. Can you explain what the right level of challenge is for you at the moment?
15. What does it feel like when you are being really challenged? Could you use this to help yourself in the future?

Exemplar Feedback Questions: Strengths

1. Can you show me three things you’ve done well?
2. What strengths are there in your work?
3. Where were you successful – and how do you know you were?
4. How did you make progress in this piece of work?
5. Why is this a good piece of work?
6. What did you do well today – and what evidence do you have to prove it?
7. Where did you show your strengths?
8. How is your work better now than it was three weeks ago?
9. Where did you make the biggest improvements today?
10. How has your target helped you to get better?
11. Why did this piece of work play to your strengths?
12. How did you use your strengths to create a good piece of work?
13. When did your strengths come into play – and why?
14. If you could identify a key strength of your work, what would it be and why?
15. If you had to pick out the most pleasing part of your work, what would you choose?