► Japanlanes Jane Nakayama November 15, 2024

November 2024
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

Giving feedback and feedforward to supplement learning

Is a gradeless classroom possible? Are schools ready to adapt to a new educational system where grades are no longer deemed important? Coming from a country like the Philippines, where getting a high mark on a test is a big deal, a gradeless classroom is improbable. My views about grades shifted when I started living in Japan. Students do not receive medals or any sort of award for being the most brilliant student in class. They do not repeat a grade if they have a lot of absences, with or without any valid reason.

At the end of the school year, students receive a report card just indicating how well they behave in class, which is a letter grade. It doesn’t consist of a numerical grade for each subject. Instead, the teacher gives feedback to each student.

Why do need to give feedback?

The students will be aware of which areas of learning they need to improve on when teachers give feedback after their performance or any activity. Aiming to get a high grade on a subject or project can sometimes stress students out. Aside from the educational concept in Japan, another thing that makes me adore a gradeless classroom is the IB education. I was astonished at first why students do not get grades on the subjects they are studying. Most of our assessments are performance tasks. We sometimes have paper and pencil assessments, but they are not recorded. Instead of giving grades and recording them, teachers keep anecdotal records of students.

The topics are introduced in a fun, engaging way. The assessments, on the other hand, is given based on how well the students understand the lesson. As I have already mentioned, most our our assessments are performance tasks. For example, our Grade 1 students had a science fair. The topic was about matter: solid, liquid and gas. The class was divided into groups. Each group presented an experiment in front of teachers and students. After the event, we gave feedback to each group. Other students gave feedback as well.

Feedforward

Feedforward is given to enhance future performance. This is critical in the gradeless classroom. For example, students choose their role model to write about them. The teacher checks their work and gives feedback. To ensure students show a better performance for the next activity, the teacher can suggest ways to improve on their writing. Does the student need to work on his/her vocabulary? How about spelling? Timely feedback and feedforward is vital to supplement learning.