Providing Teachers With Feedback That Fosters Growth
Effective, actionable feedback encourages teachers and ultimately leads to stronger classroom performance.
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Feedback is fundamental to any growth-oriented system. Teachers derive immense value from receiving feedback on their teaching practices. Providing teachers with feedback is not about criticism but rather about fostering professional development, improving teaching methodologies, and ultimately enhancing the quality of education. Giving teachers feedback is essential and contributes to the overall advancement of the education system.
Feedback catalyzes continuous improvement. Constructive input helps teachers identify areas where they excel and aspects that need refinement. By acknowledging their strengths and recognizing areas for growth, teachers can fine-tune their teaching methods and consistently strive for excellence.
When administrators intentionally provide feedback to educators, it boosts teachers’ confidence and ability as well as student learning. Remember these five “Be” statements to provide impactful feedback .
The 5 ‘Be’ Statements for Better Feedback
1. Be specific. Feedback should not sugarcoat or exaggerate the strengths or weaknesses of the individual. It should be candid and truthful, avoiding misleading or overly positive language. Specific feedback is concrete, addressing particular actions, behaviors, or outcomes. Vague or generalized feedback is less helpful because it doesn’t provide clear guidance for improvement. Realistic feedback is based on observable and verifiable evidence. It should draw from specific examples and situations rather than making assumptions or generalizations.
2. Be realistic. Feedback should focus on what can be changed or enhanced. Realistic feedback is essential for personal and professional growth. It helps individuals understand their strengths and weaknesses, make informed decisions, and take steps to improve their performance.
Giving realistic feedback means providing feedback that is honest, accurate, and based on objective observations. This feedback should reflect the performance or behavior of the person receiving the feedback.
3. Be timely. Feedback is most valuable when it’s provided close in time to the event or behavior being assessed. Timely feedback is more likely to be relevant and specific, as both the giver and the recipient have a fresh memory of the situation. When feedback is given promptly, individuals have a better opportunity to learn from their actions and make necessary adjustments. This helps in preventing the repetition of mistakes and encourages continuous improvement.
4. Be consistent. Consistent feedback helps establish clear expectations and standards for performance or behavior. When feedback is provided regularly and uniformly, individuals know what is expected of them and can work toward meeting those expectations. Consistency in feedback promotes fairness and equality. It ensures that everyone is held to the same standards and treated equally, reducing the potential for bias or favoritism in evaluations.
Providing consistent feedback holds individuals accountable for their actions and performance. It reinforces the idea that continuous improvement and adherence to standards are ongoing responsibilities.
5. Be actionable. Giving actionable feedback means providing feedback that is specific, clear, and practical, enabling the recipient to take specific steps to improve their performance or behavior. Actionable feedback should help the individual understand what they need to do differently and how to do it. This feedback should address particular actions, behaviors, or outcomes. It avoids vague or general statements and provides precise details about what was done well or what needs improvement.
Delivering feedback respectfully and constructively with the intent of supporting the teacher’s growth and improvement is key. Your feedback can be a valuable resource for educators looking to enhance their teaching methods and create a more effective learning experience for students. Below are some examples to help calibrate your practice.
- “Your use of real-life examples in lessons helps students understand the material better. You create a supportive and inclusive classroom environment where everyone feels valued.”
- “Some students may benefit from additional practice exercises to reinforce the concepts you’ve taught.”
- “Please consider addressing off-topic conversations to maintain a focused learning environment.”
- “I’ve noticed that some students struggle to stay engaged during longer lectures. Perhaps more interactive activities could help.”
- “Consider using rubrics to make your grading criteria more transparent.”
Remember to concentrate feedback on the behavior, not the person. Open conversation by stating the behavior or instructional move observed. End with what you want to see moving forward. This model enables you to avoid sounding accusatory by using “I” and focusing on behaviors instead of assumed interpretations.
Feedback fosters a culture of collaboration and open communication among teachers. When colleagues share insights and observations, it creates an environment where educators learn from each other’s successes and challenges. This collaborative atmosphere fuels professional growth and the exchange of innovative teaching strategies.
Constructive feedback helps teachers identify areas where they can grow professionally. Whether it’s refining classroom management skills, incorporating technology effectively, or fostering better student engagement, feedback guides teachers toward targeted areas of improvement.
Seven Keys to Effective Feedback
What Is Feedback, Anyway?
Feedback essentials, progress toward a goal, "but there's no time".
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- A friend tells me, "You know, when you put it that way and speak in that softer tone of voice, it makes me feel better."
- A reader comments on my short story, "The first few paragraphs kept my full attention. The scene painted was vivid and interesting. But then the dialogue became hard to follow; as a reader, I was confused about who was talking, and the sequence of actions was puzzling, so I became less engaged."
- A baseball coach tells me, "Each time you swung and missed, you raised your head as you swung so you didn't really have your eye on the ball. On the one you hit hard, you kept your head down and saw the ball."
1. Goal-Referenced
- The point of this writing task is for you to make readers laugh. So, when rereading your draft or getting feedback from peers, ask, How funny is this? Where might it be funnier?
- As you prepare a table poster to display the findings of your science project, remember that the aim is to interest people in your work as well as to describe the facts you discovered through your experiment. Self-assess your work against those two criteria using these rubrics. The science fair judges will do likewise.
2. Tangible and Transparent
3. actionable, 4. user-friendly, 7. consistent, feedback vs. advice.
› You need more examples in your report.
› You might want to use a lighter baseball bat.
› You should have included some Essential Questions in your unit plan.
These three statements are not feedback; they're advice. Such advice out of the blue seems at best tangential and at worst unhelpful and annoying. Unless it is preceded by descriptive feedback, the natural response of the performer is to wonder, "Why are you suggesting this?"
As coaches, teachers, and parents, we too often jump right to advice without first ensuring that the learner has sought, grasped, and tentatively accepted the feedback on which the advice is based. By doing so, we often unwittingly end up unnerving learners. Students become increasingly insecure about their own judgment and dependent on the advice of experts—and therefore in a panic about what to do when varied advice comes from different people or no advice is available at all.
If your ratio of advice to feedback is too high, try asking the learner, "Given the feedback, do you have some ideas about how to improve?" This approach will build greater autonomy and confidence over the long haul. Once they are no longer rank novices, performers can often self-advise if asked to.
Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades
› Good work!
› This is a weak paper.
› You got a C on your presentation.
› I'm so pleased by your poster!
These comments make a value judgment. They rate, evaluate, praise, or criticize what was done. There is little or no feedback here—no actionable information about what occurred. As performers, we only know that someone else placed a high or low value on what we did.
How might we recast these comments to be useful feedback? Tip: Always add a mental colon after each statement of value. For example,
"Good work: Your use of words was more precise in this paper than in the last one, and I saw the scenes clearly in my mind's eye." "This is a weak paper: Almost from the first sentence, I was confused as to your initial thesis and the evidence you provide for it. In the second paragraph you propose a different thesis, and in the third paragraph you don't offer evidence, just beliefs."
You'll soon find that you can drop the evaluative language; it serves no useful function.
The most ubiquitous form of evaluation, grading, is so much a part of the school landscape that we easily overlook its utter uselessness as actionable feedback. Grades are here to stay, no doubt—but that doesn't mean we should rely on them as a major source of feedback.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school . Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement . New York: Routledge.
Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement . Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Mazur, E. (2009, January 2). Farewell, lecture? Science, 323 , 50–51.
Grant Wiggins (1950–2015) was president of Authentic Education, a consulting, research, and publishing company. He authored many books and was coauthor of Understanding by Design® , an award-winning framework for curriculum design that extolled the virtues of backward planning.
Wiggins, a nationally recognized assessment expert, worked on some of the most influential reform initiatives in the country, including Vermont's portfolio system and Ted Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools. He consulted with schools, districts, and state education departments on a variety of reform matters, organized conferences and workshops, standards clarification, and developed print materials and web resources on curricular change.
UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN® and UbD® are registered trademarks of Backward Design, LLC used under license.
ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.
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