What is formative feedback and why is it important? Follow
This article helps teachers and school leaders understand what formative feedback is, why it matters in digital learning, and how Hāpara tools can support it.
In this article:
- How does formative feedback work?
- Why is formative feedback important in a digital context?
- How do you create a culture of feedback?
- Why is your role as both a teacher and a coach?
- How does your role work with formative feedback?
- What are the characteristics of effective formative feedback?
- Formative feedback quick guide
Formative feedback is information you give students while they are still working — so they can adjust and improve before an assignment is finished. It is low-stakes, ongoing and focused on growth rather than just grades.
In a digital classroom, Hāpara tools such as Teacher Dashboard, Highlights and Workspace make it easier to see student learning in real time and respond with timely, targeted feedback.
How does formative feedback work?
Formative feedback is the guidance you give students as they are learning, not just after they submit work. Instead of one high-stakes grade at the end (summative assessment), you build in multiple, informal feedback-learning cycles for each assignment.
This approach:
Places less emphasis on the final grade and more on growth
Gives students several chances to revise and improve
Helps students clearly understand concepts and next steps
Encourages reflection and ownership of learning
Education researcher John Hattie has found that high-quality formative feedback is one of the most powerful ways to improve student learning.
In Hāpara, you can support formative feedback by:
Viewing student work in progress in Teacher Dashboard
Monitoring browsing and online activity in Highlights
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Reviewing and commenting on task work in Workspace
Why is formative feedback important in a digital context?
Because so much learning now happens online, formative feedback in digital spaces is more important than ever. Students cannot simply receive an online assignment, work alone on their Chromebooks and be expected to master the material.
Instead, effective digital learning includes:
Frequent, short check-ins
Clear guidance linked to goals or success criteria
Ongoing opportunities to adjust work based on feedback
Hāpara tools make this easier by giving you visibility into student work and online behavior, so you can quickly respond, redirect and support students during the lesson rather than after it.
To lay the groundwork for effective formative feedback in a digital classroom:
Create a culture of feedback.
Develop your role as both teacher and coach.
How do you create a culture of feedback?
A culture of feedback is closely connected to a growth mindset. Without it, students may interpret feedback as criticism, especially when it is delivered digitally and tone is harder to read.
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Growth mindset |
Fixed mindset |
| Intelligence is malleable | Intelligence is unchangeable |
| Hard work leads to achievement | Hard work won’t help you achieve |
| Feedback is valuable and constructive | Feedback is evaluative and critical |
To build a feedback culture:
Model both giving and receiving feedback yourself.
Invite students to give you feedback on lessons or explanations.
Provide regular opportunities for peer feedback in pairs or small groups.
Make rubrics and grading criteria transparent so students know what “success” looks like.
Celebrate revisions and persistence, not just “getting it right” the first time.
Hāpara can support this by making rubrics, instructions and exemplars easily accessible through Workspace or shared folders, and by making feedback visible and ongoing rather than one-time.
Why is your role as both a teacher and a coach?
The idea of the teacher as a coach, or a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage,” means that teachers partner with students in the learning and knowledge creation process. While teachers are experts in the content, they can still engage in the learning process and reach students where they are with skill-building, redirection, encouragement or celebration.
What this means in the 21st-century context is that quality interaction between the teacher and student should be increased. Digital tools make giving quality feedback and coaching easier and more timely, freeing up teachers to do what humans do best: connect with students.
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Sage on the stage |
Guide on the side |
| Teaching is mostly in a whole class, lecture-style setting. | Teacher partners with students in the learning process as a teacher-coach. |
| Students mostly hear material in one way from just the teacher’s perspective. | Teaching is mostly in small groups and with individuals. |
| One-size-fits-all feedback comes with a grade or evaluation at the end of the assignment. | Students hear material in multiple ways from both teacher and peers. |
| Onus to learn material is on students. | Personalized feedback is given multiple times throughout the learning process. |
| Onus to learn material is shared between teacher and students. |
How does your role work with formative feedback?
Seeing yourself as a coach means:
Knowing students as individuals, including their strengths, gaps and interests
Using that knowledge to personalize feedback
Checking in with students multiple times during a task or project
Rather than assigning an online task and letting students work alone for thirty minutes, you are:
Moving around the room and through your digital tools
Monitoring progress in Teacher Dashboard or Workspace
Pushing thinking with questions, hints or examples
Giving small, actionable pieces of feedback “in the moment”
This type of formative feedback shows students you know where they are, what they have already achieved and what they need to do next.
What are the characteristics of effective formative feedback?
There are some proven ways to get the best results when giving formative feedback.
Start with these formative feedback strategies in your classroom:
- Base formative feedback on formative assessment
- Make your feedback timely, personal, relevant (connected to goals), non-evaluative and respectful
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Make time for students to implement your formative feedback
Formative feedback quick guide
Ways to create a culture of feedback |
Characteristics of effective formative feedback |
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Read this article to learn how to use Hāpara tools to streamline the feedback process.