Student Responses to Teacher Feedback

by Yun-Pi Yuan Eng. Dept., Fu Jen Univ. April 8, 2009 Student Responses to Teacher Feedback

Outline • Introduction • Purpose of the Study • Data Collection • Findings • Positive Feedback • Negative feedback • Conclusion Yun-Pi Yuan 2

Introduction (1) • Teacher feedback: • consciously • unconsciously • Format of teacher feedback: • written • spoken • Importance of teacher feedback: • a very important role in student learning • also part of teacher-student communication and interaction Yun-Pi Yuan 3

Introduction (2) • Possible impact of teacher feedback on Ss: • positive feedback: may motivate students and reinforce their learning and often promote autonomous learning • negative (or even offensive) feedback: may be detrimental to student learning Yun-Pi Yuan 4

Purpose of the Study • Examine teacher comments from the perspective of students • How students respond to teacher comments • Problems inherent in teacher feedback • Impact of teacher feedback on Ss and their learning • Bring to teacher awareness and thus more effective feedback can be provided Yun-Pi Yuan 5

Data Collection • Questionnaires (anonymous): • hard copies: in some cc classes • electronic files: to all students • Subjects: • 31 students of the Eng. Dept., Fu Jen University • Courses involved: Composition & Conversation, Reading, Speech, etc. • Mostly about written feedback Yun-Pi Yuan 6

Findings • Positive feedback: 8 • Negative feedback: 11 • Invalid: 12 Yun-Pi Yuan 7

Positive Feedback (1) Interpersonal Organization(e.g., sequence, transition) Other (e.g., pre-writing skills, topic sentence, etc.). Yun-Pi Yuan 8

Positive Feedback (2) • Develop a friendly relationship with students • Praise • Express agreement • Experience sharing • Interpersonal • Language • Content-focused • Organization (e.g., sequence, transition) • Other (e.g., pre-writing skills, topic sentence, etc.) • Spot grammatical errors with elucidation • Collocation • Sentence construction • Word usage • Comments on thoughts and idea flow • Cited references • Clear direction “Have topic sentences and they are good transitions” Yun-Pi Yuan 9

Student Responses to Positive Feedback & the Impact • Feeling motivated to do further improvement • Appreciating teachers’ effort in correction and instruction • Feeling their performance appreciated and effort rewarded and respected • Gaining confidence • Feeling happy and a sense of “fulfillment” • Actively participating in self-learning and autonomous learning to meet teachers’ expectations • Devoting more time and attention to revision Yun-Pi Yuan 10

Negative Feedback (1) No Comment or Grade Personal Attack Trivial Errors Teacher Mistake Yun-Pi Yuan 11

Negative Feedback (2) • Unclear comments • No comment or grade • Same comments • Subjective comments • Personal attack • Trivial errors • Teacher mistakes • “I cannot see your point if there’s any” • “I don’t understand.” • “Much better” ( the 2nd draft) • Lead to misinterpretation . • Only a big “X” or “?” (no other explanation) • “So, could you please tell me why you choose this topic?” “It's interesting." "It's impressive,” etc. Yun-Pi Yuan 12

Student Responses to Negative Feedback & the Impact • Feeling hurt/belittled and not taking the class seriously • Becoming inattentive in class or not studying hard • Being impervious to other following feedback • Losing confidence & no motivation to write a good paper • Never asking any question to the teacher • Questioning one’s Eng. ability • Rejecting any more input from the teacher • Regarding revision as a waste of time and a game of word re-arrangement. Yun-Pi Yuan 13

Conclusion (1) • Positive effective feedback can - build a communication bridge between teachers and students. - motivate students to make improvement. - have a positive influence on not only students’ learning but also the shaping of their personality. • Students have a high preference for multi-faced feedback: content, grammar (form), organization, and interpersonal relation. • Mode of Effective Feedback for Writing Yun-Pi Yuan 14

Conclusion (2) • Negative/offensive feedback can - decrease the student’s motivation for further learning and self-improvement. - get a negative impression of the teacher. - make the student feel impervious to the courses and the teacher’s teaching. - distort the student’s learning attitude so that autonomous learning may be not facilitated. - make input-absorption impossible. Yun-Pi Yuan 15

Conclusion (3) • General Suggestions from Students: • Provide an introduction of certain marks/symbols which the teacher may use in correction. • Write legibly to help Ss understand written comments. • Avoid vague, ambiguous comments. • Grades are the main source from which students recognize their achievement. • Inconsistency in correction/feedback-giving (if there is a 2nd draft) may negatively influence students’ trust for teachers. Yun-Pi Yuan 16

Conclusion (4) • Plagiarism issue • Is it only the student’s responsibility to ask teachers to clarify/explain their comments? • “If I had a question and do not know how to do it, asking the teacher would be my last option because I am afraid of being condemned.” Yun-Pi Yuan 17

Thanks for your attention! Yun-Pi Yuan 18

Experience Sharing • Feedback on one journal: • “It takes time and efforts to grow up and be independent. We all go through similar stages and we’re glad we can be of help in some palaces of your journey. Be strong and then you will be able to give others a hand when they have similar problems. In fact, you are never special or less brave. From our Monday class, you found there are many classmates showing similar stressful and difficult situations. Always keep in your mind- what you d reams are.” Yun-Pi Yuan 19

Mode of Effective Feedback for Writing Yun-Pi Yuan 20

Example: Mode of Effective Feedback for Writing [Extracted from a research paper] Yun-Pi Yuan 21

Personal Attack • Speech presentation on “Origin of Dinosaurs’ Extinction”: • The teacher told me that my whole speech was “totally a lie” and my speech was “insulting her.” She said that I was like “deaf” in her class. She felt that I had lost my connection with the outside world. She even criticized me that I was the kind of girls who shopped a lot but didn’t know what I want. Yun-Pi Yuan 22

Teacher Mistakes • Logic problem: • “Originally, I thought it was my problem but after thinking for a while, I still did not think my logic had any big problem. So I changed the words/expressions, but kept the original ideas and logic. It turned out that the professor passed the paper and didn’t pick on my logic.” Yun-Pi Yuan 23

Subjective (Offensive) Comments One of the classmates was against cohabitation (in the debate). She claims cohabitation increase the possibility of having sex; she was Christian. Our teacher responded, “If it is a relationship, they would have sex.” “The student’s religious belief was being ignored. The teacher believes that sex is inevitable in relationships; even though most people do believe so, we should have been more careful when there was a religious issue involved.” Yun-Pi Yuan 24

Student Responses to Teacher Feedback