The Role of Teacher Feedback in Enhancing Student Learning

Enhancing student learning is undeniably one of the most important roles of a teacher. Being in charge of a classroom means finding ways to positively influence a child’s well-being about their education.

Feedback has to be constructive, or else there’s little point in giving it. The role and impact of the teacher’s feedback are explored in the post below.

Why Is Teacher Feedback Important?

The role of the teacher is pivotal. With a strong rapport and the ability to hold a room, a teacher can educate, instruct, communicate, and facilitate independent learning journeys. Feedback to students allows them to identify where they are in their academic careers.

Enables the Identification of Strengths

A major component of the teacher-to-student feedback pivots around the identification of individual strengths the young person holds. Knowing where you are academically strong is empowering, and educators play a pivotal role in helping students figure this out. When you know what you’re good at, you can use it to determine the path you will tread for the rest of your life.

Facilitates the Engagement with Weaknesses

The other side of this will always be identifying where there are gaps to be filled in. These gaps could be called weaknesses, but it is important to use more positive language in the classroom environment to avoid the assassination of self-worth. Children learn resilience through adapting and responding to their challenges, and a classroom is a significant place of exploration for all these things.

Learning How to Overcome Your Mistakes is Important

While it may feel anxiety-inducing to highlight areas of weakness, students need to interpret their mistakes in a safe space so they are better able to continue moving forward. If it’s never pointed out, it will never change. Teachers can pave the way to a higher degree of engagement by strengthening the areas where a child is struggling. It should always be a collaborative thing with a clear focus on working together to step up.

Live Quiz Strategies for Active Approaches

An educator is also able to encourage more positive communication methods during feedback sessions. This type of group work is a vital experience during learning years and it can easily be done with platforms like Vevox. Vevox (and the Vevox app) provides a highly informative experience for both students and teachers where mutual, secure exploration of classroom feedback can take place. This branch of feedback is integral to supporting positive learning habits and enabling students to think on their feet through live quizzes and so on. Sometimes, instant feedback is just as useful and it will encourage reactive engagement.

The Effects of Negative Feedback

Negative feedback must always be framed constructively. There are always going to be modules that students don’t understand or grammar points that just won’t stick. How this is approached in the classroom will be majorly influential in terms of both a child’s ability to continue their engagement with a topic and how a young person overcomes the barrier. Telling someone they’re wrong is easy to do, but showing them it’s not a big deal is another.

Perceptions of self-worth and self-esteem are intrinsically tied up with making mistakes. How caregivers and educators navigate this with young people is vital to their well-being and development. Negative feedback, when done correctly, can be a moment of empowerment vs. a moment where a young person shuts down and disengages. So, how can negative feedback be delivered more suitably?

Focus on the Solution

There is little point in sitting there with a student and telling them all the ways that they are wrong. Focusing on the solution is arguably more constructive for their development and your moral compass. Focusing on the solution looks like really thinking about where this learning barrier needs to shift and what it’s going to take to make that happen.  

Never Make it Personal

There are bound to be subject matters that people struggle with along the way. Everyone has their niche and area of interest, after all, and each child brings different skills to the table. Educators must always focus on the educational problem on the table, not the student. By avoiding tying personal feelings and personal opinions, and also stepping away from talking about the child as opposed to their work, half the battle is won. There will always be a more positive outcome if the conversation focuses on the issue at hand as opposed to trigger phrases like ‘you don’t do this’ and ‘you should be doing that’.

Feedback is a normal part of a student’s journey. There will have to be interaction with the teacher to enhance their learning outcomes, but how this is delivered and the ways it impacts are vital considerations. The wrong words at the wrong time can crush a spirit, but the right words delivered at a pivotal moment will bring resolution and boost confidence.