ABSTRACT
I still remember a demonstration of the power of feedback on performance in a teaching course fifteen years ago. This is what happened. The pretend students were paired with pretend assessors. Students were asked to balance on one leg and stay as still as possible. Assessors were asked to ignore the results. Students had varying degrees of success and no one knew how long it should go on for. Students repeated the task. Assessors were asked to respond with mild applause. Students improved their ability to stay still. Next, students were asked to repeat the exercise, balancing themselves with their arms outstretched and given a target of thirty seconds. Assessors were asked to respond with an enthusiastic round of applause.The students were able to stay still and achieve the task well.
