Feedback

Giving constructive feedback is not easy – but is important. Effective feedback builds trust by being supportive and sincere while at the same time giving specific information about behaviors that can be changed.

Guidelines for Giving Feedback about Classroom Observations

1. Base your feedback on observable evidence

Collect data during observations and share these with your partner-teacher. Avoid sharing your perceptions, justifications or conclusions. By analyzing the data together, you help your partner-teacher draw conclusions.

Opinion: “Students weren’t taking time to think about answers to your question.”

Evidence: “When you called on Brandon before asking the question, two students in the back began to talk, ten students turned their attention to their computer screens, three students raised their hands, four students referenced their books, and one student put his head down.”

2. Reinforce evidence of effective practices

As much as possible, share specific evidence of success before sharing evidence of problems – as long as the evidence is sincere. By reinforcing effective practices, rather than giving advice, your partner-teacher knows what skills s/he has that can be expanded or built upon.

Advice giving: “You should tell students how you want them to respond before you ask the question.”

Positive reinforcement: “When you reminded students to give you a thumbs up if they agreed or thumbs down if they disagreed, 24 of the 26 students participated in response to the question. Your instructions helped reinforce the classroom expectation for participation.”

3. Be specific rather than general

Avoid labeling what was observed with general terms or educational jargon that may be interpreted differently. Rather, describe what the student and the teacher were actually doing.

General: “You used an alternate response format.”

Specific: “After the presentation of new content, you used the think-pair-share activity.”

4. Describe rather than evaluate

By avoiding evaluative language, positive or negative, the feedback will be more useful. If it’s negative, it is less likely your partner-teacher will react defensively. Avoiding evaluative language also encourages your partner to evaluate her/his own effectiveness based on your observations.

Evaluative: “You did a great job asking higher level questions.”

Descriptive: “During the time I collected data you asked 14 questions. The data shows 5 recall questions, 6 use questions and 3 create questions. Let’s look at the data together…”

5. Note the impact of the teacher’s behavior on the students

Help your partner-teacher see connections between her/his actions and the student’s behavior or learning. This helps a teacher build an internal locus of control and a sense of efficacy. It also discourages blaming the students for what isn’t working well.

Evaluative: “You gave up too easily when Cassandra didn’t give you the answer you were look for.”

Descriptive: “After Cassandra responded to your question you moved on to another student and praised him for his correct answer. She slouched in her seat and didn’t volunteer to answer any other questions.”

6. Attend to the teacher’s stated needs or area of focus

Feedback can be more meaningful when the teacher has stated an area in which s/he wishes to improve. Build continuity by tying your observations to your partner-teacher’s goals, previous observations or other data. Assisting the teacher with her/his areas of focus helps reinforce reflective practice and builds trust.

Example: “Since we talked about focusing on wait time, I recorded just the question stem. For each question, I circled 1 or 2 each time I observed the 3-5 second pause. Let’s take a look at it together…”

Adapted from New Teacher Center @ University of California, Santa Cruz

Copyright  2007