A Framework for Teacher Verbal Feedback: Lessons from Chinese Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

Background:Teachers’ verbal feedback plays an important role in classroom teaching. Different types of feedback can have different effect on students’ learning. Praise and blame feedback could provide positive and negative result for learners. The gap was left in considering teachers’ attitudes in providing verbal feedback to students.Material and methods:Due to feedback which may culture dependently, the types of teachers’ verbal feedback were studies based on analysis of 24 teachers from 4 regions (Shenyang, Beijing, Hangzhou and Chongqing) in junior secondary mathematics classrooms of China.Results:A coding scheme on the attitudes of teacher verbal feedback was developed which included three categories: “Negative”, “Neutral” and “Positive (Encourage in gesture & Encourage in action)”.Feedback frequency and duration were documented and showed that teachers hold neutral attitudes mostly.Conclusions:Teaching method (student-centered or teacher-centered) and school policy were the most apparent factors presented by this study which can have effect on teacher’s verbal feedback.