Білім айнасы газеті Республикалық газет 
Тасбулатова Алуа Киненовна
Атырау қаласы
Жалпы білім беретін
№32 орта мектептің ағылшын тілі
пәнінің мұғалімі
“If pupils don’t learn the way we teach… perhaps we should teach the way they learn” (Eppig, 1981. p.5) In the context of teaching and learning languages, various definitions of the term feedback have been proposed. Most of these definitions indicate that feedback refers to informing students about their work in progress. More specifically, this form of interaction shows students their errors and guides them to correct their work. An important point that needs consideration concerns the purpose of providing feedbacks. According to Boud (2002), “A good feedback is given without personal judgment or opinion, given based on the facts, always neutral and objective, constructive and focuses on the future”. Thus, feedback should be seen as a constructive approach on improving students’ performance.
Feedback is an essential part of effective learning. It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning. Bellon et al.state “academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behaviour…this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting”. Feedback can improve student’s confidence, self-awareness and enthusiasm for learning. Providing students engage with feedback, it should enhance learning and improve assessment performance.
The literature on boys’ learning has highlighted several differences between boys’ and girls’ thinking. As Fleetham states: “Boys’ and girls’ brains are different in a number of ways, and much has been written about male thinking and behavior as opposed to female”. As neuroscience delves deeper into the brain and its working, new explanations are suggested for these differences. We can use such findings to excuse what boys do, but it is more helpful to use them to guide our understanding of what boys need.
Fleetham identifies several factors of influence boys’ learning. These are: the ways lessons are structured, the support they are given, the praises they are given, the opportunities they have to be themselves, the value placed on their achievements. Research from the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations indicates that it takes at least 4 positive comments to counter the emotional damage caused by one negative comment. The research also highlights that the ratio of negative to positive comments in a typical classroom can be as high as 5 to 1. That means there is a lot of praise needed! Boys tend to get more from verbal feedback than girls, because they are happy to offer their answers, and girls are quite in their ideas and they like generalization.
In order for formative assessment to take place, and for feedback to be useful and based on multiple communications, we need to be clear about our aims for students’ learning , especially for boys learning – not just what we want them to learn, but how we want them to learn, so that they leave school with the desire to learn and with enough knowledge about how to do this if left to their own devices. This, of course, means we also have to look at how we are teaching. The search for answers about how students learn and how teachers need to teach is never- ending, and the main source of answers is teachers’ own findings.
Assessment plays an essential part in education generally and in learning and teaching particularly. Teachers and schools are expected to assess students’ learning for a range of purposes and for a range of audiences. Assessment primarily carried out to help pupils to learn is usually called formative assessment or assessment for learning. Assessment which is primarily for other purposes is often called summative assessment or assessment of learning.
Why do we assess?
— To monitor national standards
— To sort and classify students for university and employers
— To determine what courses students should take in school
— To report on achievement to students themselves and parents
— To support and help students to learn by diagnosing difficulties
— To support and help students to learn by providing feedback
I break assessment for learning down into three key stages:
- Gathering information about students
- Analysing and interpreting that information
- Using that information to inform own teaching and to help students learn for themselves.
Verbal feedback is the most natural and frequent feedback experience for students: feedback from the teacher, to the teacher and from and to peers.
Providing feedback throughout lessons is important. It is something that will become second nature with just a little bit of practice. Feedback should be used to encourage students to work hard and indicate what they need to focus on when they are having difficulty.
During lessons, teachers use a lot of verbal feedback to let students know how they are doing and also to transition from one section to another. Short expressions such as “Great!” or “Good job!” can be used to praise students for correct answers. Rather than tell students directly they are incorrect, it is better to ask them to try again or reconsider their answers. The goal is to elicit the correct answer from the class and students should not be afraid of being wrong . We can summarize how students did and introduce the next topic for transitions by saying “Alright! You did so well talking about food. Now let’s move on to.” This will reinforce the fact that students should keep up the good work. If student responses are a little lackluster, we can point that out in our comments too. By saying “I know it’s Friday but I need a bit more energy in this next section, OK? *wait for student response* OK! Great, now we’re going to talk about ~.” we show that we empathize with students while still pushing them to do their best. It is easy to include verbal feedback in every stage of your lesson. The role of feedback is clearly a topic of importance because of the growing evidence that it can enhance boys’ learning.
