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Close Feedback Loops: make learning stick

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools we have in education and coaching. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) consistently highlights feedback as one of the most effective levers for improving learning. Yet feedback is only powerful when it is acted upon. If feedback is simply given and then left without purpose or deliberate foregrounding, it risks becoming noise. What truly matters is the loop: whether the learner:

- takes the feedback,

- thinks with it,

- then reshapes their action or memory

In other words, learning happens not when feedback is delivered, but when the loop is closed.

Why Loops Matter

The metaphor of a loop is instructive. An open loop is unfinished, an instruction waiting to be acted upon. A piece of formative feedback left hanging in the air of the rugby pitch or the classroom. A closed loop signals completion, a cycle where information has not just been received but integrated, acted upon, and reflexively encoded for future reference and support.

Cognitive science tells us that memory strengthens through active retrieval, rehearsal, and adjustment. Feedback functions as a correction point in this cycle. If the learner merely hears the feedback without revisiting their work, their neural pathways remain unchanged. But when the learner returns to the task, rethinks their response, and applies the feedback, the brain fires again, strengthening synaptic connections and changing the long-term memory for the future. This is not just feedback, or even formative feedback, as educational terminology goes: this is corrective feedback.

Rosenshine’s principles make the same point practically: guided practice with corrective feedback enables learners to move from error towards fluency. Without the return loop, practice risks entrenching mistakes rather than correcting them.

From Information to Transformation

There is a danger in treating feedback as a transmissive or didactic process where the coach gives, and the learner receives. But learning is not this linear. Feedback must trigger thought, and thought must drive action.

The loop closes when the learner:

Thinks with the feedback – asking themselves what has changed, why it matters, and how it applies.

Acts on the feedback – reshaping performance or responses with deliberate effort.

Checks the outcome – looking back to see if the adjustment improved performance.

This reflective process transforms feedback from external advice into internalised learning. The responsibility shifts subtly but significantly because it is not the coach who makes learning stick, but the learner who does so through their active engagement as a result of the corrective feedback.

Implications for Memory

The durability of memory depends on depth of processing. Shallow feedback – such as “good work” or “try harder”, or simple praise, “excellent/great” gives nothing for the learner to process. But specific, actionable feedback invites them to engage at a deeper level and thus reconstruct, compare, and refine.

Every time a learner re-engages with feedback, they are practising what Robert Bjork calls desirable difficulties: effortful thinking that strengthens long-term retention. The loop creates an opportunity for memory to be consolidated, not left fragile.

In practical terms, feedback that closes the loop is feedback that makes the learner think hard. And as Daniel Willingham reminds us, memory is the residue of thought.

Practice: Designing for Closed Loops

How can we design environments where feedback loops are consistently closed? A few key practices stand out:

Build return time: Do not just give feedback at the end. Give learners the chance to act on it immediately, while the task is still fresh. Even consider foregrounding the feedback as the main task orientation of the lesson within your learning design.

Focus feedback on process, not only outcome: Help learners think about how they are approaching the task, not just whether they got it right. Again, learning design and deliberate approaches to tasks will best inform this for both coaches and teachers.

Make the learner articulate the change: Have them explain what they will do differently, in their own words. This reflection forces deeper processing because it acts as a form of elaboration.

Revisit past errors: Begin new sessions by reviewing and correcting old mistakes. This shows learners that feedback is not forgotten but forms part of a continuing cycle.

In both classrooms and on the training pitch, this design matters. When learners know that feedback will always lead to a return, they start to expect the loop. Feedback is no longer passive commentary but an active stage of their learning journey.

A Culture of Ownership

Closing feedback loops is not just a strategy. It is a cultural stance in your instructional choices as a coach or teacher. It communicates to learners that they are active participants in their own development, and underlines the importance of their responsibility and accountability for learning. Coaches and teachers provide the guidance, but the learner closes the loop.

This culture fosters agency. It builds self-regulated learners who do not wait to be told what to do, but who listen, think, and act. It reframes feedback from judgement to opportunity.

Closing Reflection

Feedback without a loop is incomplete. It is a sentence left unfinished, a thought that fades before it strengthens memory. By closing the loop – by placing the responsibility back with the learner to think, act, and check – we turn information into transformation.

Learning is not about the words we give. It is about the loops we close.