.8 Feedback and Reinforcement Abstract

Every student is unique, and a good teacher is one who can discern differences between students and respond to each student individually. Learning who your students are, and how best to instruct them, is done by gathering and analyzing feedback. With adequate and accurate feedback a teacher can adjust his/her approach to teaching, thus maintaining order in the classroom and maximizing the effect of the lessons. This benefits everyone involved.

Feedback comes in as many forms as the attentive teacher is able to gather it in. Some forms include student eye contact and personal interaction, testing, review questions, parent conferences, sampling, demographics, teacher reports and student records.

It is essential that teachers know their students so that they can make professional judgments and bend their own rules when necessary. The teacher must run the rules, not be run by the rules.

Teachers should take time to practice reading feedback and should learn to be flexible while still maintaining confidence in making their own judgments. In doing so, teachers should be aware of learning cycles and how they fluctuate. Teachers should be able to evaluate themselves and modify teaching methods based on this awareness of learning patterns. Effective teaching may take some time to establish and recognize, so accurate interpretation of feedback is a necessary, although sometimes difficult, skill to acquire.

The best feedback comes from watching students practice their learning in the context of real life - a type of feedback that is virtually impossible to glean from a classroom. Typical classroom learning takes the form of short term memorization which is quickly lost, and therefore never applied, by the student.

Teachers must always strive to maintain professional standing and to be a role model, but at the same time they must have human interaction with their students. Foremost among the skills necessary to establish this "contact" is that of empathizing with their students. Teachers must constantly act in the best interest of their students.

	No Parrot Question
	Mrs. Stewart is a new teacher at an inner-city high school. She has some experience as a substitute teacher, but has never worked at the high school level before. How can Mrs. Stewart use the feedback that she receives from her students in order to adjust to this age group and better understand how to efficiently and effectively work with them and teach them?	Answer Here