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-# Feedback and assessment - Concepts
+# Feedback: the Good Stuff
+![getfeedback.png](/img/getfeedback.png)
 
 Now, the word “feedback” may fill some with dread, but at P2PU it makes us super stoked. We’re feedback addicts, always wanting to build with each other or see a project from another point of view. 
 
-When a student gives feedback or support to another student, that process deepens their own understanding. In the case of learning to program, students with expertise actually learn more when they work with students who have less expertise. In writing courses, the research suggests that the act of critiquing another’s work measurably improves the quality of your own. We can associate peer feedback with dozens of other skills, including communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, and empathy. It’s a bit edu-speak, but bear with us: what we mean to suggest is that you can learn through assessing someone else. This has massive implications, good ones, for learning communities on the web. Not only will communities come up with their own notions of quality (the software development community GitHub has “core contributors” as an example) but communities can also scale to meet the needs of many learners in a personal way.
+When a student gives feedback or support to another student, that process deepens their own understanding. In the case of learning to program, students with expertise actually learn more when they work with students who have less expertise. In writing courses, the research suggests that the act of critiquing another’s work measurably improves the quality of your own. We can associate peer feedback with dozens of other skills, including communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, and empathy.**It’s a bit edu-speak, but bear with us: what we mean to suggest is that you can learn through assessing someone else.** This has massive implications, good ones, for learning communities on the web. Not only will communities come up with their own notions of quality (the software development community GitHub has “core contributors” as an example) but communities can also scale to meet the needs of many learners in a personal way.
 
 In the social learning universe, feedback is a kind of “assessment” of someone else’s work, so we tend to use the terms interchangeably. From where we sit, solid feedback on the web embraces the following principles:
 
-- **Recognize different paths to the answer**. Traditional assessment structures often resemble binary code: they are either on (right) or off (wrong). There’s a mismatch between this kind of black-and-white approach and working on complex projects: solutions are often iterative, and understanding grows over time. Say you’re an urban planner tasked with building a new park. There are countless ways to approach the problem–you could optimize for greenery, for social interaction, for ecological impact–and all of the answers would be relevant. Real world problems often have several solutions. The way we learn and recognize learning should not be “one size fits all.”
-- **Model concepts of quality and community norms**. Learning communities determine what is “in” or acceptable, and what isn’t. Community moderators or experienced members often shine a light on what they consider to be of quality, for instance with “Featured Projects” or “Projects We Love” gallery. Imparting exemplary work with some sense of status models behavior for the wider community.
-- **Foster deep conversations and social presence amongst community member**s. Participating in a learning community is a way to master both a domain and the norms and values of a community. For example, say you post your latest crochet mittens to the knitting community site Raverly. The feedback from the community will: a.) make your future crochet projects more stitch-perfect and, b.) model for you how to participate in the larger Raverly community. If you’re stuck on a certain pattern, consulting experts on Ravelry can buoy you up, help you overcome obstacles and take risks.
-- **Build in reflection and self-assessment**. In educational circles we often hear about building a “reflective practice”–asking learners to look back on their own work, diagnose their understanding, and imagine how they might use these skills in the future. In eduspeak we call this “metacognition”: thinking about your thinking. Which is positively correlated with lifelong learning and self-directed exploration. Which I think we can all agree is a good thing.
-- **Support a learner’s continued growth and evolution**. E-portfolios and other similar mechanisms make space to showcase how we evolve, and tap the wealth of resources available on the web. As learners progress they gain visibility within a community, and they are expected to take on increasing responsibilities, e.g. to help others, provide feedback, or maintain the norms of the community.
+###Recognize different paths to the answer
+Traditional assessment structures often resemble binary code: they are either on (right) or off (wrong). There’s a mismatch between this kind of black-and-white approach and working on complex projects: solutions are often iterative, and understanding grows over time. Say you’re an urban planner tasked with building a new park. There are countless ways to approach the problem–you could optimize for greenery, for social interaction, for ecological impact–and all of the answers would be relevant. Real world problems often have several solutions. The way we learn and recognize learning should not be “one size fits all.”
+###Model concepts of quality and community norms 
+Learning communities determine what is “in” or acceptable, and what isn’t. Community moderators or experienced members often shine a light on what they consider to be of quality, for instance with “Featured Projects” or “Projects We Love” gallery. Imparting exemplary work with some sense of status models behavior for the wider community.
+###Foster deep conversations amongst community members
+Participating in a learning community is a way to master both a domain and the norms and values of a community. For example, say you post your latest crochet mittens to the knitting community site Raverly. The feedback from the community will: a.) make your future crochet projects more stitch-perfect and, b.) model for you how to participate in the larger Raverly community. If you’re stuck on a certain pattern, consulting experts on Ravelry can buoy you up, help you overcome obstacles and take risks.
+###Build in reflection and self-assessment 
+In educational circles we often hear about building a “reflective practice”–asking learners to look back on their own work, diagnose their understanding, and imagine how they might use these skills in the future. In eduspeak we call this “metacognition”: thinking about your thinking. Which is positively correlated with lifelong learning and self-directed exploration. Which I think we can all agree is a good thing.
+###Support a learner’s continued growth and evolution 
+E-portfolios and other similar mechanisms make space to showcase how we evolve, and tap the wealth of resources available on the web. As learners progress they gain visibility within a community, and they are expected to take on increasing responsibilities, e.g. to help others, provide feedback, or maintain the norms of the community.
 
 ## A Toolkit for Better Feedback