I’m sure most teachers have been there: you return students’ written work with your feedback and you see some students’ faces changing. When you then tell the class you were happy with everyone’s progress, some learners look at you with expressions that show them thinking “my teacher must have gone crazy”. Sounds familiar? Don’t worry: it is not you, it’s all to do with our brain. In this blog, we explore the impact of emotions on feedback and consider some ways to proactively manage students’ emotions regarding feedback.

 

 

 

The power of feedback

According to Hattie (2009)’s extensive research in which he reviewed over 500,000 studies, feedback has the greatest influence on student achievement, more than any other teaching strategy. The Australian Society of Evidence Based Teaching describes effective feedback as information that you give to your students that helps them close the gap between where they are now with their work, and where they could be. In other words, for feedback to be effective it needs to contain information about the next step in learning. Whilst providing concrete suggestions to grow, also called constructive feedback, is crucial for any learner to further develop their skills, it might not always be received well since it sets of their alarm bells.

 

 

 

Our brain’s reaction to threat

Whilst dividing our brain into 3 emotional regulation centres might be a simplified picture, it may help paint a clearer idea of what is going on at the inside when students receive feedback they perceive (yes, it is all about how it is perceived) as a threat.  We all manage our emotions by switching between the drive system, motivated by achieving for example learning goals, the soothing system, motivated by rest and needed for us to feel safe and being able to relax, and the threat system, motivated by survival (Gilbert, 2009). The threat system responds to external inputs such as certain words or behaviours and internal inputs, such as unpleasant memories or thoughts. Both inputs result in the brain wanting to protect us from those perceived dangers to make sure we stay safe. As a result our sympathetic systems kick in, which can cause a high heart rate, muscles tension etc. and before we know it our threat systems hijacks our thinking area and the freeze, fight-or-flight response kicks in.  When this happens inside students might not be so pleased with our carefully constructed constructive feedback, as it is seen as a threat to their survival. Sadly, the feedback we had carefully constructed falls on deaf ears. But surely constructive feedback is there to help them improve, right?

 

 

 

The role of culture and personal experiences in receiving feedback

Interestingly, our emotional response to any feedback is often shaped by our cultural values and norms. Different cultures have varying norms regarding the delivery and reception of feedback. For example, in cultures Meyer (2016) describes as individualistic (e.g., Western Europe and the USA), direct and specific feedback focusing on individual performance is acceptable. In more collectivist cultures (e.g., many Asian or Latin American countries), feedback is expected to be more indirect to maintain group harmony and avoid a loss of face (Meyer, 2016). Thus, how positive or constructive we perceive given feedback to be is mostly based on who we are, our beliefs and values which are formed in our socio-cultural context, and from past experiences. In other words, positiveness or constructiveness of feedback is in the eye of the beholder. This might be useful to keep in mind when you are trying to clarify to learners that you didn’t mean THAT!  Since students’ effective response to feedback is crucial for productive feedback uptake and improvement of academic performance (Lipnevich and Smith, 2022), what is it we can do to proactive manage their emotional responses to feedback?

 

 

 

Some ways to proactively manage learners’ emotions

Now it might come as a surprise, but the good, old-fashioned sandwich approach apparently doesn’t really help learners to better take constructive feedback on board. Whereas it might feel easier for us teachers to give constructive feedback that way, there are several challenges with the sandwich approach for feedback uptake. The main issue is that it doesn't allow time for proper processing since there is little time between the praise and criticism for reflection and questions. So what would may be more helpful to do? Below are some ways that might help you soften those feedback blows.

  • Start with the foundation: build a trust relationship with your learners. Without them trusting you there will be very little learning from whatever you say or do in the classroom, let alone from feedback.

 

  • Get to know our feedback-self: develop your self-awareness and reflect on which of your qualities, as well as paralinguistic features and non-verbal communication, learners respond well and less well to. Try to explore your actions and words from a student perspective: how does the way you give feedback shows that you believe in your learners, respect them and that you want to inspire them to grow even more?

 

  • Create a safe feedback culture: mistakes should be welcomed in the classroom as they are a crucial part of the learning journey (look back at Creating a culture of welcoming mistakes). By normalising mistakes and talking about the emotions involved in learning we may remove students’ perception of feedback as a judgment. Our learners should know that we want them to succeed and that the intention of our feedback is to empower them, not to put them down. Creating a psychologically safe learning context can enable them to make the most of your comments instead of fear them and allow students to truly focus on where they can improve the most: areas that are not so strong… yet!

 

  • Fostering growth mindset in our learners: The beliefs they have about receiving feedback will affect how they feel about receiving constructive feedback, which will impact their actions. Learners with growth mindsets believe they can grow in areas that are not so strong yet, through putting in the effort (Dweck, 2006). This belief creates a willingness to keep going and an openness to taking on board our feedback and act accordingly.

 

  • Develop students’ feedback literacy. As mentioned above the value and appreciation of receiving feedback may differ in different cultures. So when teaching in multi-cultural environment it seems even more important that we discuss what we are trying to achieve by giving feedback and what the teacher and the learner’s role is in the feedback process. You could use the following ideas to help learners grow their feedback literacy:
  • Discuss your aims of giving feedback and why it is given
  • Co-construct a feedback definition with your students
  • Get students to reflect on their experiences and feelings when receiving feedback
  • Explore what makes effective and non-effective feedback
  • Identify what qualities might make someone good at dealing with constructive feedback

 

 

 

Final thoughts

Now, as always there is no one best way and giving effective constructive feedback is challenging but being aware of the possible challenges means we can proactively work on EASE-ing our delivery and learners’ reception of feedback. In a nutshell,

Establish clear expectation so learners know what to expect and why

Actively create the conditions, a safe feedback culture and triggering growth mindsets

Supportive feedback is key, to get there build relationships, consider your language, students’ cultural background and develop your awareness of how you actually give feedback

Empathy goes a long way. Remember learning a language takes time and it’s a long journey that is different for everyone.

I strongly believe that our job is not simply to give feedback, but to ensure our learners benefit from our feedback. So we need to make sure that we manage the feedback process in such a way that learners truly can learn from it. Proactively planning a more holistic approach to feedback by considering cognition and emotions can give our learners’ more of a chance to benefit from feedback given.  What do you think, are you happy to give it a go? Do let us know how you get on!

 

Don’t miss the next free webinar in the MET Spotlight Series! In today’s multimedia landscape, the rise of fallacious arguments, “fake news,” and unreliable sources makes critical thinking skills essential not only in one’s native language but also when learning new languages. Andrew Boon will be shining a spotlight on integrating Critical Thinking into the Language Classroom. Find out more about all upcoming webinars here. 

 

References

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

Gilbert, P. (2009). The Compassionate Mind: A new approach to life’s challenges.

Hattie, J. A. (2009). Visible Learning A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.

Lipnevich, A. A., & Smith, J. K. (2022). Student–feedback interaction model: Revised. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 75, 101208.

Meyer, E. (2016). The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business.

The Australian Society of Evidence Based Teaching