While giving written feedback in Assessment for Learning, which of the…

Assessment for Learning (AfL) treats feedback as a tool to improve future performance, not just to judge past performance. Two research-based guidelines govern effective written AfL feedback: open with what the student did well before addressing errors, so the student stays receptive rather than defensive; and prompt the student to locate and fix their own mistakes (spelling, computation, expression) rather than the teacher simply supplying the correct version, so the student practises self-correction.

The stem's two statements map directly onto these two guidelines: Statement I ('praise first, then address errors') is the receptiveness guideline; Statement II ('encourage the student to make corrections rather than writing the correct answers directly') is the self-correction guideline.

• Only Statement I selects the opening-tone guidance but leaves the item's second point, about how the actual correction should be delivered, outside the selected answer, even though the stem asks about both points together.

• Only Statement II selects the correction-delivery guidance but leaves the item's first point, about how the feedback conversation should open, outside the selected answer, even though the stem asks about both points together.

• Neither Statement I nor Statement II rejects both of the stem's points outright, treating neither the opening-tone guidance nor the correction-delivery guidance as something a teacher needs to observe, a position at odds with how AfL feedback is meant to be delivered.

Both the opening-tone guidance (praising before raising errors) and the correction-delivery guidance (prompting the student to locate and fix mistakes rather than simply being handed the corrected spelling or answer) are the practices a teacher is expected to combine when giving written Assessment for Learning feedback, confirming that both named points hold together.