Frequent, Objective, AI-Powered Instructional Feedback Helps Teachers Improve Teaching Practice
TNTP endeavored to determine what works to help teachers improve. Their study found nearly no clear patterns. Except one…Teachers who receive objective feedback and regular coaching show the most consistent improvements in teaching practice.
But, for most teachers, feedback is rare and often perceived as subjective. Coaching is also often out of reach for many teachers, and is more effective with teachers have agency over the process.
TeachFX empowers teachers to gather objective feedback through our instructional coaching app to make coaching a more collaborative — and effective — experience.
The feedback teachers receive is too often not perceived to be objective.
Affirming the way we work at TeachFX, the TNTP study finds that teachers need feedback that they trust to be accurate, objective, and a realistic picture of their teaching practice.
More specifically, teachers need “clear information about their strengths and weaknesses to improve their instruction.” What’s more, the study found, “As teachers indicate that they are more open to feedback, their scores can be expected to increase…”
So, when the feedback teachers receive feels subjective, it can also seem inaccurate, and has the opposite of the desired effect. Conversely, when teachers receive feedback that feels objective, it can create a virtuous circle – the more objective and useful feedback teachers receive, the more open they are to receiving it, and the more it helps them improve their practice.
Consistent coaching helps teachers improve, but is often out of reach.
Teachers with regular coaching gain confidence in their abilities and improve student engagement in their classrooms – and a recent study from Digital Promise confirms it.
What’s more, TNTP finds a relationship between the number of observations teachers receive and improvements in teaching practice. The most consistent improvement occurred when teachers received weekly observations followed by a 30-to 45-minute debrief with their coach.
But coaches are spread thin, according to Digital Promise, working with as many as 16 teachers at once while filling multiple roles themselves – including teaching in the classroom as well as coaching teachers.
So, while teachers’ feedback and the data support the value of regular coaching combined with objective feedback, too few teachers are actually getting that.
Objective feedback creates a shared point of view for coaches and teachers
With TeachFX, teachers gather their own objective feedback, create space for self-reflection, and engage in instructional coaching as a collaborative partnership.
Erin, an instructional coach in Delaware, knows that “there's so much going on when you're teaching…sometimes it's hard to know what you even think you might want to focus on."
TeachFX brings that clarity and focus. When teachers can see an objective view of their lesson, they see their practice with a new clarity. It’s that moment, as Erin says, of: “Oh gosh, I really thought I was giving students all this time to think and process and I wasn't. I was giving them a second or two.”
Using TeachFX allows teachers to gather their own objective feedback, and to see far more insights than possibly could be gathered by one person’s observations.
Rather than the coaching conversation being based on a teacher’s own subjective view of what happened in the room, or a coach’s observation, Erin and her teachers are working together with the same view of the same, objective information.
Supporting teachers in ten school districts in Arkansas, Kelsey has seen the power of her teachers actively reflecting on their own teaching practice.
Alongside research-based insights they get in the TeachFX instructional coaching app, teachers are guided by reflection questions in the app.
And, teachers know that their class reports are private and non-evaluative (though they can share them with their coaches if they choose).
This creates the space to think critically about how what they’re seeing in the lesson aligns with their instructional goals.
It’s powerful to get an objective view of your lesson and be able to ask yourself questions like:
Was this valuable talk?
Was it academic talk?
Is this what you intended?
Is this how you planned this lesson?
Having reflected on their own, teachers come to their coaching experience ready to talk through what they’ve observed for themselves and partner together with their coach on a plan for their practice. It’s another way that TeachFX helps put teachers and coaches on the same side of the table together.
Teachers and coaches can focus on one clear goal – and see progress in almost real time
Improving teaching practice doesn’t mean improving on every aspect of that practice, and certainly not all at once. Instead, it’s powerful to be able to decide with confidence the one thing that will make the most difference right now.
Olivia, a middle school instructional coach, has seen how, with TeachFX to provide objective feedback and help create a culture of reflection, teachers can select that one thing they want to work towards right now.
It’s the difference between setting instructional goals based on the reality of the classroom, rather than assumptions about what’s happening.
With TeachFX, both Olivia and her teachers have “a way to hear and see what it is that we can't see when we teach.” With that clear picture of where we are, we can decide where we want to go and how we’ll get there.
Help new teachers engage in effective inquiry cycles from the start
Ashley’s coaching practice is largely informed by a revelatory coaching experience she had early on in her own teaching career.
During a debrief after an observation, Ashley’s coach asked her how much time she thought she’d given students to participate in their group discussion after a close read of a text.
Although she guessed about five minutes, her coach’s timer told a different story. "That's when I realized that during that entire 50-minute class period, I had only given my students an opportunity to engage in academic discourse for a mere 30 seconds.”
Now a coach herself, Ashley is working with several new teachers who are working towards their credentials. And to do so, they must engage in cycles of inquiry, examining the elements of their teaching practice they’d like to improve.
She’s integrated TeachFX into her coaching with new teachers because she knows first-hand the power of objective data to enhance my coaching conversations and guide teachers to an even deeper reflection on their teaching practices.
"The teachers are not only able to use the data from the TeachFX app as evidence in their inquiry cycles, but the data is truly informative for them for how they need to move forward with their students.”
Whether teachers recognize that they’re struggling with student engagement, or sparking student academic discussions, TeachFX has helped. Teachers get a clear picture of the conversational dynamics in their classroom, feel comfortable sharing the data with Ashley, and engage in reflective conversations together.
From the start, these new teachers are practicing a continuous cycle of improvement and learning how best to make use of coaching to get specific recommendations about tools or strategies to support their instructional goals.
It’s time to change what we think we know about improving teaching and learning
The TNTP study we referenced earlier found that districts spend an average of nearly $18,000 per teacher, per year on development efforts that show no evidence of changing teaching practice.
What both TNTP and Digital promise have found is that it’s objective feedback combined with effective coaching that helps teachers improve their teaching.
It’s time for schools and districts to stop doing the same things we’ve always done because it’s the way we’ve always done it.
Integrating TeachFX into a coaching program works because it helps teachers create their own cycle of continuous improvement.
Insight: TeachFX a lesson. See who engages in the lesson, how academic dialogue happens, and which teaching practices engage students’ voices.
Reflection: Create the space for teachers to reflect on their own practice – with objective feedback plus personalized professional learning.
Inspiration: Explore new teaching practices to connect each student more deeply to their learning, knowing you’ll see the results in almost real time.
Action: Adapt the learning experience to students’ needs and connect what happens in the classroom to your instructional vision.
