Giving effective feedback

Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.

Feedback is one of the essential parts of learning because it helps students to understand the subject being studied and to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses; Students learn faster and more deeply if they know what the strengths and weaknesses of their performance are. 

Feedback consists on a retribution, response or information based on previously established objectives that teachers provide to students about their work, it means that providing feedback means giving students an explanation of what they are doing correctly and incorrectly. This information must include a guideline on what aspects students need to improve and how to do it.

The feedback that teachers need to provide to the students can be verbal or written, and it must be delivered just at the time that the students finish their work, so that students have the opportunity to respond to the commentaries that the teacher provides.

Feedback is very important in our lives, not only in our work lives but also in various aspects of our lives. It will help us improve more on the areas of our life that need improving on. At the same time, it allows us to be better, to become someone who can give more. It will also help you discover things about yourself. 

Teacher's classroom questions

Most of the time that teachers spend in school is spent asking questions to students for different purposes either to assess knowledge, to check if they have understood the activities, or to create a good classroom environment, so that questioning serves for the purpose of helping teachers achieve specific purposes and help students to develop the activities in the best way.

Questioning is an essential tool for both teaching and learning. It’s one of the most popular modes of teaching because it’s possible to transfer knowledge and understanding trough asking questions, it helps teachers to keep students involve in learning, students have the opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts, it develops dialogue between students, it helps teachers to evaluate their students learning, etc.

Questions can be materialized in an oral and written form, but the most used is the oral form as it develops reflective learning. There are 3 categories of teachers in regards to asking classroom questions: the first one is the group of teachers who practice questions in an intuitive manner, the second one is the group who use questions and do not plan for it, and the last group is the one that recognizes that asking questions is important and requires advance planning.

Asking questions is a skill that not all the teachers have, but they can acquire it by the time. When teachers ask good questions, students are able to feel more comfortable, to participate actively in class, and to be more independent. Also, it can foster interaction between the teacher and his/her students.  

Assessment in education

Formative assessment is defined as frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately.

Assessment is a fundamental aspect in education and every teacher has to do it. Assessment involves two mayor types of activities; the first one is based on collecting information about students’ knowledge and skills and the second one is based on checking if each student has the appropriate level of learning. Both imply measurement and evaluation activities that can be materialized through tests, oral questions, homework, write papers, problems, and presentations. Teachers can evaluate the score from those activities by comparing them one another or to an absolute standard.

Assessment has to be done with the purpose of supporting learning; for learning it is the most critical tool in developing and personalizing an individual student’s route through school, as it takes account of the specific learning needs of each student. Assessment guides students as individual learners because they will know what they strengths and weaknesses are. Through assessment students develop an awareness of how they learn and use that awareness to adjust and advance their learning, taking an increased responsibility for their learning.

Teachers view assessment as their responsibility to provide students with knowledge, examination tips and structures that result in formulaic approaches to examination questions. Also, it helps teachers to gain insight into what students understand in order to plan and guide instruction, and provide helpful feedback to students.

Independent learning

Working as teachers, we deal with a great variety of personalities and different types of students. Some of them have difficulties making the transition from high school to university because superior education requires students to take responsibility for their own learning and to make decisions by themselves. Also, it’s kind of difficult for students to make the transition from high school to university because they are surrounded by more distractions and the level of education is higher, so it means that they have to make a bigger effort and study more than how they used to study.

The main goal for teachers is to facilitate independent learning that is a process in which a student acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation.

One of the big challenges that we as teachers have is to encourage our students to make decisions by themselves about how they could learn the best and how they could be more independent and creative in their own learning. Also we have to create opportunities for them to pursue their own interests and practice skills in a variety of ways in order to create students able to know what they want or don’t, willing to take risks, able to set goals and initiate tasks with less direction and avoid procrastination.

Interesting and innovating strategies can create positive and challenging learning environment.

Teaching has to do not only with helping individuals acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in different areas of learning but also with preparing them to be a useful and important part of the world.

The use of innovating and interesting strategies in teaching has the potential not only to improve learning, but also to empower people to learn in a better way. Consequently, teachers seek for different strategies that help them to create the best environment for learning to take place making students feel comfortable and willing to participate in classroom activities so that creativity can be developed and innovation benefits both students and teachers.

Most students come to class with fears and uncertainty. Students fear failing tests, not fitting in with peers, and appearing ignorant in front of their classmates. Being afraid to ask questions, express opinions, or join group discussions can greatly hinder a student’s learning. But we can create an environment that nurtures their confidence and allows them to explore and expand their knowledge without undue risk or fear.