Hattie and Timperley (2007) distinguish four levels of feedback messages that address different aspects of students’ learning: task, process, self-regulation and self. This blog post outlines how the four levels are useful for the different steps in mathematical problem-solving and mathematical reasoning.
Figure 1 shows all four levels of feedback and the bubbles give examples of how these are linked to clues about the mathematical reasoning process. Domain-specific feedback can address simple errors in the reasoning process – for example, task feedback: ‘You made a mistake in the calculation.’ Feedback could also involve cueing to guide the search for a better solution or relationship without stating directly the correct answer – for example, process feedback: ‘What step is needed next in the reasoning process?’ Feedback may include comments to students about how they are self-monitoring their progress towards a goal – for example, self-regulation feedback: ‘Have you checked all the steps needed for the argumentation?’ Last, feedback at the self level consists of feedback responses based on the student’s character traits – for example, self feedback: ‘You are an excellent mathematician.’
According to Hattie and Timperley, the first three levels – task, process, self-regulation – are most beneficial for student learning. Based on observations in English classrooms, Brooks et al. (2019) suggested a model for learners at different stages of competence. A novice, for example, requires feedback on the task, while learners who are already proficient benefit more from process or self-regulatory feedback. Educators and researchers mostly look at the impact of these four levels on students’ learning, in general, but not on specific phases of learning in specific subjects (Harris et al., 2015; Hattie & Gan, 2011). In our multi-method study (Smit et al., 2023), feedback levels derived from the feedback model of Hattie and Timperley were used in conjunction with feedback that was related to subject-specific content; here, mathematical reasoning tasks in primary school.
