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The Power of Feedback
A feedback framework focused on where the learner is going, how they are going, and what should happen next.
Published 16 May 2026Updated 29 September 2026Year 2007
Why this review matters
Feedback is often treated as any comment delivered after performance. Hattie and Timperley use a more functional definition: information that helps reduce the gap between a learner's current understanding or performance and a goal. That framing makes the content and target of feedback more important than the amount delivered.
The feedback model
The review organizes useful feedback around three questions: where am I going, how am I going, and where to next. A learner needs a clear goal, information about current progress toward it, and a next action that can improve the following attempt.
Feedback can address the task, the process used to perform it, the learner's self-regulation, or the self as a person. These levels do not have equal effects. Information about correctness can be useful, but process feedback can help select a better strategy and self-regulation feedback can strengthen monitoring. Praise directed only at the person may contain little information about what to do next.
How to apply it
Start by naming the target rule or quality criterion. Identify the specific part of the response that meets or misses it. Explain the process that would produce a better result, then give the learner an immediate opportunity to try again. Keep the correction close enough to the task that the learner can connect information with action.
In Nuxflo, an answer explanation should do more than reveal the correct option. It should locate the error, distinguish a knowledge gap from a reasoning slip, and recommend the next practice move. A second attempt or transfer question makes the feedback usable.
Limits and cautions
More feedback is not automatically better. It can distract from the task, reduce ownership, or discourage learners when it is vague, overwhelming, personality-focused, or delivered when no revision is possible. Timing and tone matter, but neither can rescue feedback that lacks a clear goal and actionable information.
Primary source: Review of Educational Research DOI.