Feedback during active learning: elementary school teachers’ beliefs and perceived problems

Abstract

Giving feedback during active learning is an important, though difficult, task for teachers. In the present study, the problems elementary school teachers perceive and the beliefs they hold regarding this task were investigated. It appeared that teachers believe conditional teacher skills, especially time management, hinder them most from giving good feedback. The most widely held belief was that “feedback should be positive”. Teachers also believed that it is important to adopt a facilitative way of giving feedback, but they found this difficult to implement. Only some teachers believed goal-directedness and a focus on student meta-cognition were important during active learning and teachers did not perceive problems regarding these aspects. It was discussed whether teachers’ feedback behaviour was in line with these perceived problems and beliefs. The results give directions for the professional development of teachers to improve their feedback during active learning.

Keywords:

• feedback
• active learning
• elementary school teachers
• teacher beliefs
• teachers’ perceived problems