Teaching · Reflection
Feedback We Love
What good feedback does for everyone
Teaching can feel invisible. You prepare, you teach, you assess — but the effect of your work on individual children often remains uncertain for months or years. Feedback closes that loop. It makes the invisible visible, and it changes both the giver and the receiver.
What makes feedback useful
Useful feedback is specific, timely, and connected to something the recipient can act on. "That was a great lesson" is pleasant but not actionable. "The way you used the colour-coded cards helped me finally understand word classes" is information. It tells the teacher exactly what worked and why — and it will influence future planning.
Children as feedback givers
Children are surprisingly good at identifying what helped them and what didn't — if asked in a way that feels safe and genuine. A weekly exit card with two questions ("What helped you today? What was confusing?") gives teachers rich data and gives children agency over their own learning. The act of reflection itself deepens understanding.
Parent feedback
A note from a parent describing how their child talked about school at the dinner table is worth more than a formal survey. These informal, specific accounts reveal the real-world impact of classroom work. When parents see their child genuinely engaged, they tend to say so — and teachers should hear it.
Receiving feedback well
Feedback is only valuable if the recipient can take it in. Teachers, like children, need psychological safety to hear critical feedback without defensiveness. A culture of honest, kind feedback — where the goal is improvement, not evaluation — benefits everyone in a school community.
Giving feedback to children
The quality of teacher feedback shapes children's relationship with learning. Specific praise ("You used three different adjectives in that sentence — that made it vivid") is more useful than general praise ("Good work!"). And feedback on process rather than ability — "You kept trying even when it was hard" — builds the kind of resilience that carries children through difficulty.