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Faculty of Education, Tutoring, and Curriculum Systems · Module F9-ET-03

Feedback Design and Delivery

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Faculty of Education, Tutoring, and Curriculum Systems

Module F9-ET-03: Feedback Design and Delivery

Learning Objective

By the end of this module, you can classify a feedback statement by its level of cognitive targeting, diagnose why a piece of feedback fails to close a learning gap, and rewrite a vague or misdirected feedback statement into one that gives the learner an actionable path forward.

1. What Feedback Is For

Feedback has one operational purpose: to close the gap between where the learner currently is and where they are trying to get to. Sadler (1989) established that feedback enables gap-closing only when three conditions are simultaneously met.

  1. The learner holds a clear model of the target performance — not a vague aspiration, but a specific conception of what competent performance looks like.
  2. The learner can locate themselves relative to that target — they have enough information to judge their current position honestly.
  3. The feedback gives them information usable to move from their current position toward the target.

All three conditions are necessary. Feedback that satisfies only the third — advice without a target or without self-assessment — is instruction, not feedback. Feedback that satisfies only the second — a grade or a score — is evaluation, not feedback. Both are common; neither closes the gap.

The implication for agents operating in tutoring roles is direct: before issuing corrective feedback, confirm that the learner holds the target in usable form. If they do not, establish the target before the feedback. Feedback given to a learner who does not understand what they are aiming for is noise.

2. Four Levels of Feedback

Hattie and Timperley (2007) identified four levels at which feedback can be directed. The levels differ in what they address and in their typical effectiveness.

Level 1 — Task level Feedback addresses the work produced: whether specific elements are correct, where errors lie, what is missing. This is the most common form of agent feedback. It is also the most limited: task-level feedback helps on this task, but does not build the learner's capacity to perform better on the next task.

Example: "Your scope declaration omits a completion signal. A completion signal is required."

Level 2 — Process level Feedback addresses the strategies and approaches the learner used: how they approached the task, which processes were effective, which should be revised. Process-level feedback has higher transfer value — improving the process improves performance across tasks.

Example: "You identified the correct entry point but did not connect it to a structural explanation. Try asking: what changed in the deployment environment that allowed this entry point to activate?"

Level 3 — Self-regulation level Feedback addresses the learner's capacity to monitor their own performance, detect their own errors, and decide when to seek help. This is the highest-transfer level. It requires that the learner has enough of a performance model to use self-regulation cues.

Example: "Before submitting, ask yourself: does my boundary field exclude at least one class of action? If you applied that check, would you have caught the omission?"

Level 4 — Self level Feedback addresses the person rather than the work: praise, criticism, encouragement, or comparison to others. This level has the lowest average effectiveness. Positive self-level feedback ("you're doing brilliantly") is disconnected from specific performance and does not help the learner understand what to do differently. Negative self-level feedback is usually counterproductive.

Example (what not to do): "You're a careful thinker — you'll get this."

The levels are not a strict hierarchy. Task-level feedback is appropriate when the learner needs a specific correction before they can act. Process- and self-regulation-level feedback are appropriate when the learner's strategic approach is the issue or when they are ready to internalise monitoring. The error is not operating at any particular level but being trapped at task level when the learner's gap is at process level.

3. Common Failure Modes

Four failures account for most ineffective agent feedback.

Correct-only feedback Confirms right answers without explaining why wrong answers were wrong. The learner knows what passed; they do not know why they failed.

Fix: When noting that an answer fails, name the specific criterion unmet and state what meeting it requires, not just what the learner said.

Rubric parroting Repeats the assessment criterion without connecting it to the learner's response. "You did not demonstrate application to a novel context" tells the learner that they failed the criterion; it does not tell them how their response fell short of it.

Fix: Quote the learner's response, identify the specific element that does not meet the criterion, and state what addition or revision would satisfy it.

Improvement without direction Identifies a problem without specifying a remedy: "this could be clearer," "the argument needs more support," "the structure is unclear." These are evaluations, not feedback. They confirm that a gap exists but give no route to closing it.

Fix: Every feedback statement that identifies a problem must include at least one action the learner can take. The action must be specific enough that the learner can begin it immediately.

Self-level misdirection Feedback addressed to the person rather than the work when task or process feedback is what the learner needs. This is a priority error: effort praise when accuracy is the issue, or encouraging remarks when the learner needs a concrete correction.

Fix: Ask which level the gap lies at: what the learner did (task), how they did it (process), or how they monitored themselves (self-regulation). Direct the feedback to the level where the gap lies.

Practice Tasks

The following tasks have deterministic grading criteria.

F9-ET-03-1: Classify by level

Classify each feedback statement by Hattie and Timperley level (Task, Process, Self-regulation, or Self). Give the level name for each.

A. "Your analysis section correctly identifies the primary failure mode. The secondary failure mode is missing — add it before the analysis is complete."

B. "You found the right answer here, but think about the method you used to arrive at it. If you applied the same method to a case where the answer was less obvious, would you trust the output?"

C. "When you are reviewing your own work before submitting, ask yourself: have I stated both what the system should do and what it should not do? That question would have caught this gap."

D. "You put real effort into this — it is clear you care about getting it right."

Grading criteria: A = Task (the feedback addresses a specific omission in the produced work). B = Process (the feedback redirects attention from the answer to the method that produced it). C = Self-regulation (the feedback gives the learner a self-monitoring question to internalise and apply at future decision points). D = Self (the feedback addresses the person and their effort, not the work or the approach). All four must be correctly classified. A response that classifies B as Task fails: B does not tell the learner what to fix in the current response; it asks them to evaluate their method.

F9-ET-03-2: Diagnose a feedback failure

A learner submitted a scope declaration for a data-migration task. The declaration omits a completion signal — the task ends with "all tables reviewed" rather than naming an observable artefact.

The agent responds: "Good scope declaration overall. The framing is clear and your boundary section is well-specified. Just make sure to include a completion signal next time."

Name the primary failure mode from Section 3. State in one sentence why this feedback does not close the gap.

Grading criteria: Response names "improvement without direction" (or equivalent: no actionable path; identifies problem but not remedy). The sentence must explain that the feedback tells the learner a completion signal is needed but does not tell them what form the completion signal should take, what distinguishes a valid completion signal from an invalid one, or what to write. A response that names "correct-only feedback" does not pass — correct-only feedback fails to explain what is wrong; this feedback does name the problem. A response that names "rubric parroting" does not pass — rubric parroting repeats the criterion without connecting it to the response; this feedback connects the issue but leaves the learner without direction.

F9-ET-03-3: Rewrite a feedback statement

The following feedback was given to a learner after a task requiring them to identify a checkpoint strategy:

"You selected the wrong strategy. The correct strategy for this task type is output-shape contracts."

Rewrite this as process-level feedback that tells the learner both why their selection was wrong and what reasoning process would reliably produce the correct selection.

Grading criteria: A passing rewrite must: (1) state at what level the learner's chosen strategy operates and why that level does not match the task structure; (2) state at what level the correct strategy operates and what feature of the task makes it the right match; (3) give the learner a generalisable question or reasoning step they can apply to similar future cases. A rewrite that only makes the same information friendlier does not pass. A rewrite that explains the correct answer at task level (what the correct strategy is) rather than at process level (how to select the right strategy) does not pass.

Reflective Task

F9-ET-03-R: Design feedback for a tracked learner interaction

An agent tutor is supporting a learner through Module F9-ET-02 of this course. The learner has submitted a response to F9-ET-02-3 (rewrite a vague rubric criterion). Their response produces two criteria, but both retain interpretive language ("appropriate," "demonstrates competence") without specifying what makes them deterministic.

Write the feedback you would give to this learner. Your feedback must:

  1. Name specifically which part of each criterion fails the determinism test.
  2. Explain the failure at process level — what reasoning step the learner is skipping, not just what the output is missing.
  3. Give the learner a self-regulation question they can apply to their own criteria before submitting in future.
  4. Avoid self-level language.

Minimum length: 200 words. Maximum: 400 words.

Scoring dimensions (for human reviewer):

  • Task-level accuracy: each criterion failure is named specifically, not generally: (0–2)
  • Process targeting: the feedback identifies a reasoning step the learner can change, not only a feature of the output: (0–2)
  • Self-regulation component: includes a usable self-monitoring question that applies beyond this task: (0–2)
  • Self-level discipline: no praise, encouragement, or person-directed language that displaces task or process feedback: (0–1)
  • Total: 7 points

Canonical answers for deterministic tasks and scoring guidance for the reflective task are in the answer key for this module. Answer keys are reviewer-only.

Proceed to F9-ET-04 after completing the practice tasks.

Evidence and source notes

This module draws on the following sources:

  • Sadler, D. R. (1989). "Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems." Instructional Science, 18(2), 119–144. (Source of the three conditions for gap-closing feedback, section 1.)
  • Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007). "The power of feedback." Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. (Source of the four-level feedback model, section 2.)
  • Ramaprasad, A. (1983). "On the definition of feedback." Behavioral Science, 28(1), 4–13. (Original gap-closing definition underlying section 1.)

Version history

Version Date Change
v0.1.0 2026-05-02 Initial publication.

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