Lydia Arnold

This is a very quick blog to share some practice that was recently noticed by an external colleague. It was highlighted as being useful to others. In all honesty, I thought I shared it a long time ago, but I can’t find a record of it!

For some time now, both I and our programme team (with Jane Headley, and Emily Chapman-Waterhouse), have used the 1,2,3 feedback approach. We simply say to each person when we give feedback, “what type of feedback do you want on your draft?” 

There are three basic choices. 

Option one is for students to ‘let me know if my work is likely to pass and whether there is anything that I really need to do‘. This is a threshold level of feedback to say work is okay or is not okay. We must be careful here that we don’t pre-judge the outcome, and that is understood. This is especially useful for anyone who simply does not have time to action feedback unless it is necessary. Perhaps it is somebody who has a lot going on in their life who just needs to get their work to pass. We are clear that requesting the feedback is perfectly fine and even give examples of where we would’ve asked for it in busy or pressured periods.

Option two provides guidance to help improve the work. It might be to address missing content or provide ideas to structurally improve the work. It focuses on issues of substance and tries not to get tied up in minute detail. This is ideal for anyone who has some time to make improvements but it’s realistic about what they can do at a point in time or is aware of their own appetite to make further changes.

Option three, is ‘give me everything!’. For anyone asking for option three we would request a commitment for the student to act on the feedback. Anyone requiring option three should be keen to develop their work recognising feedback as an important learning opportunity. Choosing this signals a commitment to engage deeply with the feedback. I often find that people don’t want option three once they realise the effort it requires. This interaction causes people to ask – will I be able to make use of this feedback? 

One of the questions I get about this approach is around the parity of feedback being offered, but ultimately, it’s a choice, and everybody has the same menu. This is a very simple approach I developed years ago. I believe it brings respect into the feedback conversation: I/we are respectful of the time that people have to action feedback and don’t want to overwhelm them, and equally students respect my/our time by seeking more than they have time to use.

123 is a useful way to introduce choice and dialogue around feedback in a way that is simple and recognises the effort of staff and students in creating and acting upon feedback. Of course, we understand that feedback can take many forms from personal inner dialogues to peer discussion and exemplars, so this method is not intended to serve all feedback purposes, it is a tool to support interactions related to formative feedback on draft work.