The feedback gap: NIoT's survey sheds light on teachers' struggles
Research carried out by The National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) reveals that almost 4 in 10 teachers surveyed admit they didn’t understand the most recent feedback they received from a colleague.
Led by Dr Robert Nash, Head of Psychological Research at NIoT, the survey aimed to determine how teachers felt about the most recent feedback they received on their teaching.
The survey was conducted via Teacher Tapp, an app that asks daily questions to over 9,000 teachers from across England, and reweights the results to make them representative. It uses these questions to find out what teachers think about issues related to their profession.
Amongst those survey respondents who were early career teachers, 80% said that they had understood their most recent feedback, but only 63% understood how they should act on it. In total 71% of ECTs said they felt capable of doing what was suggested, and only 63% felt willing to act on the feedback.
Giving and receiving feedback are important, but different, skills
The more experience a teacher had, the less optimal the statistics became. Among respondents with more than 20 years of teaching experience, for example, just 52% said they understood their most recently received feedback. Worse, only 37% of these experienced teachers said they understood how they should act on their feedback, 39% felt capable of acting on it, and only 35% felt willing to do so.
As Dr Nash explains: “Both giving and receiving feedback are important but difficult skills, and so we need to understand not only how to give teachers the most valuable guidance, but also how to equip them to use and apply this guidance well.
“Here at NIoT, we’re going to be doing more research into this area, so that we can continue to enhance our support for teachers at all stages of their professional development.”
The NIoT survey found that among all the teachers who took part, 60% believed that Initial Teacher Education needs to better prepare trainee teachers for engaging with feedback on their teaching. School senior leaders, including 70% of headteachers, were especially likely to agree that more of this kind of preparation is needed.
Culture is the bedrock of everything
Pip Sanderson, Director of Teacher Development at NIoT, said: “Creating the conditions to make feedback land well are a vital part of ensuring any mechanisms or strategy for receiving feedback work. That’s why, for example, we begin every NPQ with a module on culture. It’s the bedrock of everything.”
For Dr Nash, improving this teacher preparation involves thinking about the two-way communication between mentors and trainees that is key to effective feedback.
Empowering people and including them in the feedback process
He explains: “This is about empowering trainees, established teachers, and school leaders and making them feel included in the feedback process. At NIoT, we prioritise teachers’ well-being and workload. So to avoid spending time giving feedback that isn’t landing anywhere, we want to put extra emphasis on receiving feedback as a key skill, and so developing teachers’ expertise in ways that are time-efficient for them and their mentors.”
The National Institute of Teaching boosts the quality of teaching and school leadership by carrying out research, applying the insights to its professional development programmes, and sharing findings with the sector.
To this end, the NIoT will be looking at the most effective ways to embed feedback skills into its teacher development programmes, building on the bright spots already evident. Deliberate practice, for example, is part of our feedback strategy, and we’ll be conducting focus groups on feedback to get richer qualitative data.
We’re also exploring additional conversations around giving and receiving feedback, and developing techniques for how to respond to feedback.