Marking classwork in primary science: Written feedback practices in state schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Individual written feedback in the form of teacher marking of student classwork is widely understood to benefit students, but remains under-researched. We analysed how 1736 student science activities within 82 seventh-grade classrooms from a representative sample of 57 primary schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were marked. Results indicated that while the percentage of activities that teachers marked was heterogeneous (average = 45%, SD. = 29), within marked activities a vast majority (85%) was identified as being low teacher guidance (i.e. as giving students a little indication of how to make progress in science learning). Marking was mainly focussed on spelling, punctuation and grammar, giving one-word or short expressive comments such as ‘Great’ or just ‘seen’ by the teacher (Tick and Flick). There were no recorded instances of students responding to teacher comments. Given its importance for learning, these results show the need to support teachers in providing high-guidance written feedback to their students.