Feedback and marking are intimately bound up with assessment for learning (AfL).

Assessment for learning is the name given to a suite of strategies, activities and techniques in which formative assessment is the central feature.

Formative assessment sees the teacher giving students information about their learning.

They can use this information to understand what good looks like and what they need to do to improve. It differs from summative assessment in which learning is summed up and the relative success of the assessment is expressed through a grade, mark or level.

We can think of assessment for learning as three things:

• Eliciting and using information
• Giving formative feedback
• Opening up success criteria

Some may disagree with this formulation, but I stand by it as a sound rule of thumb for any teacher to use.

It is developed from the original research by Black and Wiliam and can be thought of as a cycle:

• The teacher elicits information about student learning and uses this to shape their lessons and provide feedback.
• They then open up success criteria and give students opportunities to implement their feedback.
• Having done this, the teacher is able to elicit new information, which they use to inform future planning and future feedback. And so, the cycle continues.

Thought of in this way, AfL becomes a process of continuous improvement and development.

It places the teacher in a coaching role.

And it underpins the whole process of teaching and learning.

In terms of feedback and marking, we see the central role both play in the AfL cycle.

Feedback is obviously one of the key components – you might even say the driving force.

Marking is one of the most important ways through which teachers elicit information about student learning, information they can use to tailor their feedback, so it is as effective as possible.

Without access to information about student learning, it is much harder for a teacher to provide timely and useful feedback (though it is acknowledged that marking is not the only way information can be elicited).

In conclusion, feedback is one of the key pillars of assessment for learning. The means through which the teacher helps learners to develop and improve their work.

And marking is one of the most important ways teachers elicit information about student learning. Information they can use to shape their planning and in response to which they can provide feedback.