In my own experiences as a student, whenever an instructor has
provided feedback on course assignments expeditiously, I have
considered this to be positive teacher behavior. To begin, expeditious
feedback allows me to believe that my instructor respects me (and my
classmates) enough to keep us out of limbo. In turn, this tends to foster in
me respect for my teacher, which facilitates a positive attitude towards
the course itself. Just as importantly, timely feedback allows me to
discover what the instructor liked about my work and/or what s/he did not
like, so I am able to do a better job on the next course assignment. As per
Bernstein et al., (2020), in their list entitled,Seven Effective Principles of
Effective Teaching, number four urges teachers toGive Prompt Feedback.
Over an academic semester, students are most capable of achieving
optimum performance when they are informed in a timely and consistent
manner about what they are doing correctly, and what areas they to
improve in (Bernstein et al., 2020).
In a paper entitled,What Makes Effective Feedback: Staff and
Student Perspectives,!researchers Dawson et al., (2018) administered a
survey on the topic of the importance of teachers’ feedback to their
students. The survey was completed by 4,514 students in multiple
universities. Per the study participants, what makes a teacher’s feedback
on course assignments effective included the following qualities. Firstly,
feedback is provided in a timely manner, so the student has time to
process and then implement the teacher’s suggestions in the next
assignment. Other qualities of effective feedback included it being:
detailed, clear not vague, personalized, having an optimistic tone, and
being applicable to the student’s own work.
An example that I have come to think of as negative teacher
behavior is when instructors assign group papers to the class. While
teachers may espouse that group assignments promote the formulation of
teamwork skills, this has not always been my experience. While I have
been a part of group papers that went well, they have not always
necessarily been a positive experience for me. That is because there often
seemed to occur what is known in psychology as adiffusion of
responsibility. That is, less conscientious students behave in ways that
indicate they feel a diminishment of their own personal accountability. In
other words, students function as if they are off the hook because
someone else will do the work. In the case of a group paper, when group
members who are not particularly good writers contribute sections that
require lengthy revisions another group member must take the time to
revise the deficient writing.
Per Bernstein et al., (2020), number two on their list of seven
effective principles isEncourage Cooperation Among Students. While I
agree that the promotion of cooperation among classmates is a good
thing, graduate-level students are often too busy to meet (either on Zoom
or in-person) to plan and complete a group-assigned project, whatever it
may be. What is more, when the group project is complete it often reflects
the efforts of a minority of the group members and not every member.
Relatedly, I think that if teachers utilize group work they should reserve it
for their undergraduate students. At any rate, I have ultimately come to
think of group assigned work as the negative behavior of a lazy teacher
who is not striving to do her/his best work. They are lazy because they get
to grade and provide feedback to fewer students.
In the Book of Proverbs, chapter 30, verse 9, King Solomon writes,
“The Lord your God will cause you to be overflowing from all the hard
work of your hands in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your animals,
and in the fruit of your soil. Once again, he will rejoice over your
prosperity, just as he did with your fathers…” In this Holy Bible verse, we
gain confirmation that God the Father will reward us when we strive to do
our best work. Conversely, it makes sense that when we don’t do our best
work, God the Father will only be able to reward us in a way that is
commensurate with the quality of our work. God the Father wants me to
always do my best, and he will help to do so if I continually pray and ask
him for his guidance.
Question: Do you believe that God will help you to do your best work if
you ask him?
References
Bernstein, D. A., Chew, S. L., Frantz, S., & Lucas, S. G. (2020).Teaching
psychology: A step-by-step guide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Dawson, P., Henderson, M., Mahoney, P., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., &
Molloy, E. (2018). What makes for effective feedback: Staff and Student
Perspectives.Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education,44(1), 25–36.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1467877
