Teacher Feedback and Student Learning: Key Research Insights

Introduction: Teacher Perception and Self-Efficacy

What a teacher perceives about a student has a strong impact on that student's learning, interest, and accomplishment (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, as cited in Thomas et al., 2012). A social cognitive theory framework demonstrates this powerful influence. Psychologist Albert Bandura identified social persuasions as one of the major sources of self-efficacy—one's self-confidence in one's ability to accomplish a task. Students with higher self-efficacy have been observed to achieve more academically and more persistently than their peers. Positive perception or feedback from the teacher therefore raises a student's level of self-efficacy, while negative or critical perception discourages it.

Teacher feedback that is positive, ability-focused, and effort-focused is associated with higher academic achievement in Mathematics. Studies also show that positive feedback from teachers is distributed relatively evenly between boys and girls in Mathematics. However, in general, boys receive more negative feedback than girls (Burnett, 2002, as cited in Thomas et al., 2012).

Perceived Teacher Caring

A study linked the construct of "perceived caring" in a teacher to a sense of goodwill experienced by the student (Teves & McCroskey, 1996). It is also interpreted as a perception of credibility. Together, these ideas suggest that a student who perceives his or her teacher as caring will view both the teacher and the course more positively and will tend to learn more from it. The study was conducted with 235 volunteer students enrolled in a Communications class at an Eastern university. Competence and trustworthiness were measured as key variables. The results implied that a student's perception of caring in his or her teacher was connected to—and influenced—the student's own positive perception of the teacher, the subject matter, and his or her own learning (Teves & McCroskey, 1996).

Teacher-Student Relationship Inventory

Another study was conducted in which 84 teachers rated 500 American high school students (Suldo et al., 2011). Instrumental help, satisfaction, and conflict emerged as key factors in students' ratings of their relationships with teachers. The study found no significant connection between instrumental help and students' overall perception of their relationship with their teachers. Instead, it found that students' psychological well-being correlated with academic achievement. Instrumental help also correlated with symptoms of psychopathology. The study concluded that how American adolescents rated their teachers was particularly relevant and strongly associated with their academic standing and psychological condition (Suldo et al., 2011).

Conclusion

Learning is not an entirely mechanical or technical process. The teacher and the student are human beings with very specific and deep social and personal needs, beyond simply the need to acquire a formal education. Measuring learning performance may be the direct and formal goal of classroom attendance, but the nature of learning itself—and of the learner—is neither strictly formal nor mechanical. A student is evaluated for what he or she demonstrates through recitations and tests, but the available studies consistently show that the diligent learner is also one who receives positive feedback and cultivates closeness with his or her teacher. Deserved and sincere praise or encouragement often works more powerfully than rigid tutoring or last-minute cramming.

The findings of existing research point consistently to the strong link between the nature of the teacher-student relationship and the feedback a teacher gives and a student receives, whether formally or informally. When a teacher shows caring and fairness toward a student who is struggling with a subject, that student is more motivated to explore his or her own strengths and to apply them—because the teacher's gesture affirms the student's sense of personal worth. Learning may take place within a curricular environment, but it is also an occasion where two human beings meet and either cooperate or refuse to cooperate. The end result is feedback, which either leads to learning or does not.

References

Kaufman, S. R., & Sandilos, L. (2015). Improving students' relationships with teachers to provide essential supports for learning. American Psychological Association, pp. 1–26.

Rowe, A. (2011). The personal dimension in teaching: Why students value feedback. International Journal of Educational Management, 5(4), p. 119.

Suldo, S. M., et al. (2011). Evaluation of the teacher-student relationship inventory in American high school students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.

Teves, J. J., & McCroskey, J. C. (1996). The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation. Eric Digest, pp. 1–17.

Thomas, M. K., et al. (2012). Investigating the relationship between teacher feedback and student self-efficacy. American Psychological Association.

Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 70(1).