Session 4 - Assessment and feedback in training and teaching

Presentation

Here you can find the presentation for this session:

The full presentation can be downloaded [here].

Session 4 - Part I - Introduction and Learning Outcomes

Welcome and roadmap

This final core session focuses on assessment and feedback as essential parts of the learning process. Assessment is presented not only as a way to judge whether learning has taken place, but as a way to support learning while it’s happening. Usually, trainers give feedback to learners, while trainers receive feedback from learners - and in both directions, giving or receiving feedback requires making an assessment of a given situation first.

The session emphasises the importance of frequent feedback. Since attention and engagement can fluctuate during training, trainers should build in regular opportunities to check understanding, refocus learners, and identify areas of difficulty - short feedback loops let you respond to learners’ needs before problems grow too large.

The session also covers how to receive and use feedback on your own teaching. Negative or critical feedback can be difficult to hear, but it’s also a valuable source of information for reflective practice - TtT encourages approaching feedback not as a personal attack, but as an opportunity to improve your training design and facilitation.

Learning Outcomes for Session 4

By the end of Session 4, you will be able to:

• Describe the differences between formative and summative assessment.
• Explain why frequent feedback is important.
• Describe and exemplify a few techniques for formative assessment.
• List a few techniques to cope with feedback on your own teaching efforts.

Key concepts: assessment and feedback

Two key concepts sit at the heart of this session: assessment and feedback. Let’s start by defining them.

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Session 4 - Part II - What Is Assessment?

Defining assessment

From the Cambridge Dictionary: assessment is the act of judging or deciding the amount, value, quality, or importance of something, or the judgment or decision that is made. Translated to a training context, we can assess, for instance, learners’ current knowledge, how they’re progressing through the learning process, their performance, and also the quality and efficiency of the teaching itself.

Assessment is bidirectional - it’s used by both instructors and learners:

• Used by instructors - to gauge learners’ current state of learning, and the quality of the output of a learning gain.
• Used by learners - to gauge the quality, pertinence, and adequacy of the training session, their interaction with the instructor, and the course material.

There are different types of assessment, and different ways to categorize them. But why assess at all? By assessing a learner’s current knowledge, abilities, or learning process, we can help them improve.

Assessment and the timing of a course

One useful way to categorize assessment is by when it happens, relative to the course:

flowchart LR
    PRE["Pre-course"] --> BEG["Beginning of course"] --> DUR["During"] --> RA["Right after"] --> LA["Long after"]

• Pre-course - verify the target audience: do they have the needed prerequisites, and are learner expectations aligned with trainer expectations?
• Beginning of course - a preventive check, adjusting the course to the reality of the participants actually in the room.
• During the course - assessing in real time whether learning is actually taking place.
• Right after the course - evaluation: measuring the knowledge and skills acquired.
• Long after the course - impact evaluation: measuring the adequacy, quality, and impact of the course over time.

This timing dimension gives us two named types of assessment:

• Formative assessment - pre-course, preventive, and a continuous process throughout the course’s duration.
• Summative assessment - usually linked to grading of some sort, determining a learner’s minimum achievement of a Learning Outcome; also used to measure the adequacy, quality, and impact of the course as long-term, strategic evaluation.

We’ll dive deeper into both of these shortly.

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Session 4 - Part III - What Is Feedback?

Defining feedback

Feedback is information meant for improvement - about a person’s performance, a task, their knowledge, skills, competencies, or abilities. In teaching and learning specifically, feedback is more than just a comment - it helps identify strengths and areas for growth.

Feedback is bi-directional, just like assessment: it isn’t just something trainers give to learners, it’s also something trainers receive. This mutual exchange fosters a culture of learning, trust, and continuous development. When giving or receiving feedback, always aim to be specific and constructive.

Feedback and the timing of a course

Looking again at the timing dimension, but for feedback specifically:

• During the course - feedback is usually the trainer’s responsibility. The trainer assesses learners regularly, and uses that assessment to steer their learning process: giving feedback, adjusting pace, speed, and the types of learning activities used.
• After the course - feedback becomes the learner’s responsibility, in two moments:
  • Shortly after - the learner provides short-term feedback: an “end of course” assessment measuring the quality and adequacy of the course and the trainer.
  • Long after - long-term feedback, measuring the actual impact and lasting change the course had on the learner. This is usually the hardest feedback to collect, since learners are least likely to answer surveys long after a course - but for trainers and training facilitators, it’s genuinely important, since it indicates the real impact of your courses and helps inform strategic decisions.

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Challenge - Diagnostic Assessment

Assessment vs. feedback: what’s the difference?

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Session 4 - Part IV - How and What to Assess: Formative vs. Summative

Two dimensions of assessment

Assessment can be broken into two dimensions:

flowchart LR
    A[Assessment] --> W["WHAT?<br/>Product or Process"]
    A --> H["HOW?<br/>Formative or Summative"]

What are we assessing - product or process?

• Product assessment focuses on the final, tangible outcome learners produce: a model, a gymnastics routine, a project, an assignment, an exercise, a painting.
• Process assessment focuses on how learners engage with the learning experience: their attitudes, social-relational skills, problem-solving ability, creativity, use of methods or strategies, progress over time - even the instructor’s own didactic process.

While the product shows achievement, the process reveals growth, effort, and deeper learning behaviors. Ideally, aim for both, to get a more complete picture of learning.

How are we assessing - formative or summative?

	Formative	Summative
Timing	Throughout the learning process	At the end of an instructional period
Purpose	Gauge learning and provide instant feedback	Evaluate overall achievement (of the Learning Outcomes)
Frequency	Frequent and ongoing (daily, weekly)	Infrequent - usually a few times per course
Examples	In-class discussions, weekly quizzes, polls, surveys, exit tickets, homework, group work, self- and peer-assessments	Instructor-created exams, final essays, final presentations, final reports, final projects, portfolios
Does not	Provide evidence for grading	-
Does	Help learners become aware of the focus, and improve the quality of their learning	Compare against standards or benchmarks; provide evidence for grading

Formative assessment is like a GPS - it helps you adjust your route while you’re still on the journey. Summative assessment is like a snapshot - it captures what learners have achieved once the journey is complete. Both are valuable: formative helps learners grow, summative helps measure that growth, and together they support a complete picture of learning.¹

Formative assessment: what to collect

Formative assessment means collecting information about learners’ learning progress. What are we actually collecting?

• Goals and objectives - are learners’ own goals aligned with the course’s goals and outcomes?
• Prior knowledge - which knowledge gaps need filling before moving on?
• Mental models - are learners’ mental models correct?
• Frequent mistakes - which types of mistakes need special attention?
• Ability to perform a task - can learners actually apply what they’ve learned?

When implemented well, formative assessment can effectively double the speed of student learning.²

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Challenge - Formative Assessment

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Challenge - Multiple Choice Questions and Mental Models

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Session 4 - Part V - Tools and Techniques for Formative Assessment

Formative assessment and feedback can be done in many ways - asking learners questions and getting responses orally; asking them to describe the strategy they’d adopt for a problem; asking them to solve a problem in groups, or individually in front of the class; brainstorming and discussions; diagnostic questionnaires (multiple-choice questions, as we just saw, are one type). Several of these Learning Experiences were already introduced in Session 3 - here we look at some concrete, practical tools for actually running them.

Online tools

Tools like Socrative, Google Forms, and Mentimeter let you build questionnaires with open or multiple-choice questions, to assess knowledge online.

In-class approaches

• Fist of five - learners hold up a number of fingers to indicate their confidence or agreement level.
• Sticky notes - popularized by the Carpentries: learners stick a green sticky note on their computer when they’ve finished an exercise, and a red one when they’re blocked or need help. For online courses, emoji (green/red ticks, for example) work as a substitute.

Both approaches add dynamism to the classroom while assessing learners’ knowledge in real time.

Shared notes

Tools like Google Docs or Etherpad let learners collaboratively work on exercises, ask questions, and give opinions - you assess based on what they write. Useful for the output of group activities, exercises, opinions and ideas, and questions and answers.

Asking questions and discussions

Ask learners questions orally, or start an open discussion - including in the context of group work, having groups discuss their own work. Brainstorming sessions, where learners spontaneously contribute ideas, work well here too.

Group activities

Group work is a great way to assess process: solving problems in groups, doing exercises in front of the class, or asking learners to describe the strategy they’d use for a problem. It’s also a good opportunity for learners to help each other.

Self- and peer-assessment

Learners can also evaluate each other - through self-assessment, or peer evaluation. For peer evaluation specifically, make sure to set up strict rules and guidelines beforehand.

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Challenge - Integrating Formative Assessment Results

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Challenge - How Frequent Should Formative Assessment Be?

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Session 4 - Part VI - Feedback Mechanisms and Giving Good Feedback

Feedback mechanisms run both ways: trainer to learners, and learners to trainer.

A triangulated model of teaching evaluation

A model developed by Cardona (2021) frames feedback about a trainer’s own efforts as genuinely multidirectional: trainers can receive feedback on their teaching from learners, from peers, and through self-assessment.³ Using multiple methods (triangulation) for data collection helps ensure the validity of the results - multi-method approaches tend to work better than relying on just one, both because they allow triangulation and because they better capture the real complexity of teaching.

One important, learnable skill: giving good feedback well, and teaching others to do the same. A simple strategy worth remembering: one positive, one negative - or “one up, one down.” Key message when giving feedback: be positive, be specific, give a next step.

Feedup, Feedback, and Feedforward

When talking about feedback in education, it helps to distinguish three interconnected types, based on what each one focuses on:⁴

flowchart LR
    FU["Feedup<br/>Where are we going?<br/>sets the target level"] --> FB["Feedback<br/>Where are we now?<br/>the gap to the target"] --> FF["Feedforward<br/>How do we close the gap?<br/>next steps"]

• Feedup - focuses on the target level: what are we aiming for? Sets learning goals and clarifies expectations. Example: “By the end of this module, you should be able to analyze DNA sequencing data.”
• Feedback - focuses on the current level: where is the learner now? Identifies the gap between current performance and the target. Example: “You’ve correctly identified the sequencing steps; I noticed you missed the error-checking phase.”
• Feedforward - focuses on how to close that gap: what strategies or actions will help the learner improve? Future-oriented, and supports progress. Example: “Try using the checklist to make sure all sequencing steps are covered.”

Feedback levels

Feedback can also be aimed at different levels:

flowchart TB
    T["Task level<br/>evaluate the end result<br/>e.g. an exam, an application, a sculpture"] --> Pr["Process level<br/>evaluate the steps taken<br/>e.g. a lab procedure"]
    Pr --> M["Metacognitive level<br/>evaluate thinking, logic, rationale<br/>e.g. a debate, an essay"]
    M --> Pe["Personal level<br/>e.g. 'you are very smart'<br/>usually not effective"]

If your feedback reaches the personal level - praising or criticizing the person rather than the task, process, or thinking behind it - you’ve probably gone too far. It’s generally not effective, and can even be counter-productive, though in some specific cases it may work for pure encouragement.

What makes feedback effective

• Frequent - gives learners the opportunity to course-correct.
• Immediate - minimize the time between the assessment and the feedback, so learners don’t have time to forget what they did.
• Specific - name exactly what, and when, went wrong.
• Detailed - give enough information for learners to actually understand what they did wrong and how to improve.

Setting good goals

• Clear - gives learners the opportunity to course-correct.
• Measurable - learners need a specific target, and a way to find out for themselves whether they’ve achieved it.
• Achievable and challenging - if a goal isn’t achievable, learners lose motivation entirely; if it isn’t challenging, they won’t progress or adapt to new scenarios. The balance matters.
• Quality instructions - knowing what you did wrong isn’t enough; learners need to know the steps to actually correct it.

Dealing with (bad) feedback from trainees

Humans tend to focus more on negative feedback than positive - as a trainer, receiving feedback from trainees, it’s easy to fall into the same trap. Try to see bad feedback not as a burden, but as an opportunity to grow:

• Take a deep breath. It helps you avoid the pull of negative emotion and stay rational.
• Try to see the point in the criticism - learn from it. Even if a trainee didn’t phrase it well, they may still have a point.
• Don’t take it personally. Feedback is about the activity, not the person - and neither the giver nor the receiver is always at their best. People are capable of improvement.
• Information is key - consider it alongside other information. Look at whether a comment reflects a broader trend or is an isolated case, and weigh it accordingly - it’s nearly impossible for 100% of feedback to agree, no matter how solid the course. Also consider the circumstances: were you in the right state of mind? Were conditions ideal? Could something in the trainee’s own life have affected their judgement?

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Session 4 - Part VII - Leveraging Assessment to Become a Better Trainer

Being a good trainer goes beyond delivering content - it’s about being attentive, responsive, and reflective throughout the learning process.

Good practices

• Monitor learners’ learning constantly - pay attention to how they’re engaging, progressing, and responding to the material.
• Provide feedback on how to progress - help learners understand what they’re doing well, and where they can improve.
• Act on feedback to improve learning - use what you observe to adjust your own teaching strategies.
• Collect feedback from learners - on their learning experience, the course structure, and your own teaching methods.
• Investigate when things don’t go as planned - low engagement, confusion, or unexpected outcomes are worth exploring, not ignoring.

In short: good trainers create a dynamic learning environment where feedback flows both ways, and improvement is a shared goal.

Non-formal ways to assess your own course

Assessment of your own teaching isn’t limited to tests or formal evaluations:

• Review feedback from past sessions - highlights strengths, gaps, and recurring issues.
• Look for counter-examples and contradictions - a useful way to assess critical thinking and depth of understanding.
• Look for repetitive patterns, rather than fixating on any single answer - trends in behavior, responses, or misconceptions matter more than one-off comments.
• Review what learners have effectively learned - use both formative and summative assessment to track your own progress and achievement as a trainer.
• Reflect on your own teaching experience - self-assessment: what worked, what didn’t, and why.
• Discuss with colleagues and friends - peer input offers fresh perspectives and helps refine your approach.

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Session 4 - Summary and Key Takeaways

Session 4 closed the loop on something implicit in every previous session: assessment and feedback aren’t a final step bolted onto a course - they’re something to plan from the very beginning, and to weave through it continuously.

Assessment and feedback are both bidirectional. Trainers assess learners, and learners assess trainers; trainers give feedback to learners, and receive feedback from them. Both concepts also split cleanly by timing - before, during, and after a course - which maps directly onto formative assessment (ongoing, supporting learning while it happens) and summative assessment (a checkpoint, evaluating what was achieved). For this course specifically, formative assessment matters most: it’s the GPS that lets you and your learners course-correct in real time, rather than only getting a snapshot once the journey is already over.

Good feedback has real structure. Feedup, Feedback, and Feedforward each answer a different question (where are we going, where are we now, how do we close the gap), and feedback works best aimed at the task, process, or metacognitive level - not the personal one. Frequent, immediate, specific, and detailed feedback, paired with clear and achievable goals, is what actually helps learners improve.

And feedback runs toward trainers too. Learning to receive - and not just give - feedback well is a genuine skill: taking a breath, looking for the point in the criticism, not taking it personally, and weighing information in context, rather than fixating on the one harsh comment in a sea of positive ones.

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Bonus - Combining the Four Sessions (TtT Closing)

Recap: Curriculum design (Nicholls’ cycle)

A last look at Nicholls’ Five Phases, first introduced in Session 2. By this point in the course, you’ve practised steps 1 (Learning Outcomes), 2 (Learning Experiences), and 3 (Content) directly; this closing session touches step 4 (Assessment); step 5 (Evaluation) isn’t covered in depth here. As a reminder: this process is never unidirectional - it’s iterative, with constant back-and-forth between all phases in practice.

Recap: The eight evidence-based principles of learning

A full recap of P1-P8 from Session 1 - these principles help instructors understand why certain teaching approaches do or don’t support learning, generate or refine approaches for specific contexts, and transfer what works to new courses, learners, and contexts.

Recap: The six learning strategies

Likewise, a full recap of the six evidence-based learning strategies from Session 1 - spaced practice, interleaving, elaboration, concrete examples, dual coding, and retrieval practice - each grounded in evidence from the cognitive sciences, and each a practical strategy built on top of the principles above (not a principle in itself).

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Challenge - Applying a Principle and a Strategy

Concluding the ELIXIR-GOBLET Train-the-Trainer course

The first step to becoming a better trainer is attending this type of course in the first place - most of all, because it means you’re already asking yourself how.