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Session 4. Feedback from Authority and the Link to Professional Learning
Objective. Give feedback from a position of authority in a way that invites thinking, handle four difficult conversations, and turn visit records into individual support and one whole-school professional learning focus.
Feedback from a leader is a small speech with big consequences. A teacher may replay a sentence you said for weeks. This lesson looks closely at the words themselves, and at what happens after the conversation, which is where most feedback is lost. If the follow-up costs a leader very little and the teacher gets help matched to the step she chose, a single visit can change practice. If not, the best feedback fades by the next timetable change.
Key ideas
When your words weigh double
- A comment from the head is remembered and repeated in the staff room, while the same comment from a colleague is forgotten by lunch. So give less, and give it carefully: one strength with a fact about pupils, one question, one agreed step, one date.
- Let the teacher speak first: 'How did it feel? What did you notice about the pupils?' Then give facts from the agreed lens. A World Bank blog on school leaders suggests choosing one or two observable action steps that can be tried quickly, and practising one of them together in the meeting.
- The Education Endowment Foundation's guidance on feedback to pupils says feedback should build on good teaching, be timed to move learning forward and be planned so that it is used. The same test works for adult feedback: is it timed so the teacher can act on it, and will you check that she did?
Four hard conversations
- 'You only saw 15 minutes.' Agree: 'Yes, that is all I can speak about. Here is what I saw in those 15 minutes. Tell me where it differs from your usual lessons.' Never defend the sample as typical.
- A serious weakness. Do not list. Choose the one fact with the biggest effect on pupils, say it plainly, ask what she thinks is behind it, agree one step and a close date. If there is a risk to pupils, say that the matter is now formal (see session 1).
- A strong senior teacher who expects praise. Praise precisely, then stretch: 'Your pupils all write before they speak. What would help the quietest five go further? Could you show your routine to two colleagues?' Strong teachers leave when no one asks anything of them.
- 'Just tell me what to do.' Offer two options, not one: 'You could try A or B. Which fits your class?' Choice keeps ownership with the teacher, and a plan she chose is more likely to be tried.
From a visit to professional learning
- Match the step to the kind of help. A knowledge gap (what is wrong about this idea?) needs reading, a model, a colleague's explanation. A technique (how do I check all pupils?) needs practice with feedback: a coaching cycle (course 11.1 Instructional Coaching) or a peer visit (course 11.9 Peer Observation). A habit needs small repetition and a short revisit.
- The EEF guidance on effective professional development describes four kinds of mechanisms that good programmes combine: building knowledge, motivating staff, developing teaching techniques and embedding practice. A single input, such as one session in a staff meeting, rarely changes practice. Design school learning with course 11.8 Designing Professional Learning in mind.
- Robinson, Lloyd and Rowe give a warning: leaders joining teacher learning helps pupils, but only if the learning itself is good. Leaders who add more meetings without better content create workload and no change.
Closing the loop and reading the pattern
- Every agreed step has a revisit date within two or three weeks and a question: 'What did you try? What did pupils do?' Look at pupil work, not just practice: a visit shows what the teacher did, pupil notebooks show whether pupils learned (session 5).
- Once a term, put the steps (without names) on one page and count them by type. If four of eight steps are about checking understanding, that is a school focus: one short, shared piece of learning for everybody, followed by a revisit. Individual steps that do not fit the pattern stay private.
- Tell staff what you saw in the pattern and what you will do about it, including what you will do differently as a leader. Visible leader learning is the strongest signal that visits are not a verdict.
Feedback with weight
Words that land: facts, questions and steps
State the fact with a number or an action: 'Five of 30 pupils spoke in 15 minutes', not 'participation was low'. Ask an open question and then wait, up to ten seconds. Silence feels long to the leader but is thinking time for the teacher. Phrase the step as something to try: 'What if everyone wrote the first answer on paper?'. The word 'but' erases the strength before it, so use 'and'.
Match the channel to the weight. Say praise and the one step in person, then write a short note (fact, step, date) that the teacher keeps. Never use a group message. If the talk turns sharp, pause, restate the fact and ask, 'What would you like to happen next?'. A teacher who feels attacked remembers the attack, not the step.
Making follow-through cheap and honest
Most steps fail because nobody looks again. Book the revisit during the conversation, keep it to ten minutes and ask only two things: what did you try, and what did pupils do? Record the answer in one line in your log. If the step worked, move on or stretch. If it did not, change the help, not only the deadline: perhaps she needs a model, a peer visit or a coach, as in courses 11.1 and 11.9.
When the pattern page suggests a school learning focus, treat it as a small implementation project, as the EEF guide to implementation advises: prepare, deliver in small steps, check and adjust. Finally, include your own step: a leader who says, 'I talk for ten minutes in feedback; I will try three,' makes it safe for others to name a step.
Examples from the classroom
Twelve facts, one step
Scene. Deputy head Malika in Tashkent returns from a 15-minute visit to Aziz's Grade 7 science lesson with twelve notes. She chooses one: 'Five of 30 pupils spoke, three of them twice.' She asks Aziz what he noticed first, listens for two minutes and asks, 'What would help the quiet ones talk?'. Aziz suggests a minute of pair talk. They book Thursday of week 3 for ten minutes. Aziz does it in two lessons.
Insight. One fact, one question and one dated step are easier to act on than a list of twelve.
Five steps out of nine
Scene. The methodist at a Bukhara school has nine anonymised steps from a term of visits. Five are about checking that all pupils understand. She proposes a 30-minute shared session in which teachers practise paper answers, two weeks of trying, and a ten-minute revisit by a deputy in each grade. Three weeks later seven of nine teachers use some version, and four unrelated steps are still handled privately.
Insight. A pattern across visits can justify one shared learning step while individual steps stay individual.
The strong teacher who is never asked
Scene. Malika, a senior Grade 9 history teacher in Samarkand, is told 'excellent lesson' every year. In the visit, all 28 pupils wrote an answer before anyone spoke, but only five spoke after. The deputy says so, asks what would help the other 23 and invites Malika to show her routine to two colleagues. Malika says it is the first time in years someone has asked her for more, and agrees to a peer visit in her room.
Insight. Strong teachers need a stretch question and a way to share, or they stop growing and leave.
Common pitfalls
- Giving a list of points and expecting a change in everything at once.
- Saying 'but' after a strength so that the strength is forgotten.
- Leaving the date to 'sometime soon' so that no revisit happens.
- Repeating the same feedback a third time without changing the help.
Say It Once, Well: Role Plays and the Pattern Page
- Part A (45 min). Trios, three rounds of 12 minutes with rotating roles: leader, teacher, observer. Use the role cards in the Kit. The leader has the facts from a 15-minute visit and aims for: teacher first, one fact, one question, one step, one date. The observer ticks the checklist silently.
- After each round the observer reads the checklist (2 minutes) and the teacher says one sentence: 'What I would do after this conversation is...'. Remaining 9 minutes: whole group shares the line each leader found hardest to say.
- Part B (30 min). In pairs read the eight anonymised visit records in the Kit. Count steps by type (checking understanding, thinking and talk, explanation, practice). Choose one whole-school learning focus and two individual follow-ups.
- Design the support: for the whole-school focus write a 3-step plan (30-minute shared session, two weeks of trying, a 15-minute revisit by a leader). Write what you would tell staff in three sentences and what you would not say.
- Alone (5 min): write your leadership task from the Kit with the date of your first feedback conversation.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What happened to your instinct to say more? What did the teacher do when you said less?
- Which of the four hard conversations is the most common in your school, and what is your first sentence for it?
- What in the pattern page would you not want to show to staff, and what does that tell you?
Reflect
- Recall the last piece of feedback from a leader that changed how you teach. What exactly made it work?
- Which teacher in your school has been told the same thing three times without a change? What help was missing?
- What is the one thing you personally will do differently after reading your pattern page?
Try it tomorrow
- After your next visit write one fact with a number, one open question and one step with a date before you speak to the teacher.
- In the conversation wait for a count of ten after your question and note what the teacher says.
- Book the revisit in the diary during the conversation and keep it to ten minutes.
Further reading and links
Say less with more weight: teacher first, one fact, one question, one step, one date; match the step to the kind of help and read the pattern across visits to choose one school focus.