Scholarly Commons

Providing Honest Feedback to Students: How Providing Corrective Feedback and Specific Praise Impacts Students' Learning

Throughout my student teaching experience, I conducted a self-study to examine my implementation of feedback techniques. The type of feedback provided was dependent on the students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. If students were struggling to apply academic concepts, I provided corrective feedback. This was aimed to gently explain how students could better their performance on academic tasks. If students were successfully applying academic concepts, I provided specific praise. This aimed to explain how students were correctly applying concepts, so they could continue to experience academic success. If students were behaving in a positive manner, I provided behavior-specific praise that aimed to strengthen behavioral expectations. Regardless of the situation, my feedback was always honest. Throughout the course of ten weeks, within a local third-grade classroom, I collected a plethora of data. I analyzed anecdotal observations, reflective notes, and examples of academic work to assess the effectiveness of my feedback techniques.