What are the most effective ways that you the teacher can benefit from feedback from the students and their parents? Advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. Suggestions for improvements?

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What are the most effective ways that you the teacher can benefit from feedback from the students and their parents? Advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. Suggestions for improvements?

Collecting feedback from both students and parents are an integral part of building a learning program that best serves the school. Teachers can use feedback to modify their strategies, methods or content or use feedback to gain an idea of where a student sees him/herself

There are moves towards designing and “modifying reporting systems to more effectively communicate what students are learning and how well they are learning.” (Lake, K & Kafka , K, 1996, p. 90) There are numerous and varied reporting and assessing systems being implemented all over the United States, but it should be noted that most new methods encourage a more parent and student feedback and/or involvement focus. An example of one such approach is being implemented in Mountainview Elementary School.

In Mountainview Elementary School, West Virginia, the entire reporting system was revised and replaced with a more parent involved approach. Parents were fully informed about the new reporting system before implementation and several questions and answer seminars were held to attend to any queries or concerns that parents may have had. Progress reports were sent home but opportunities for parent and teacher conferences, both before and after the issue of the reports, were strongly encouraged so as teachers could use the feedback constructively. At the end of the school year parents were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding the new reporting system. “By asking for parent feedback at the end of the school year, the teachers got information to use the next year as they continued to revise the reporting system.” (Lake, K & Kafka , K, 1996, p. 95) In this instance, parent feedback was significantly advantageous as it provided a foundation from which improvements of the reporting system could be made. In this way teachers, with the help of parents are constantly refining and rebuilding the reporting system to better suit the school community. (Lake, K & Kafka , K, 1996)

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Although it deals with a thorough assessment of a student’s progress with the aid of parental feedback, one disadvantage of this approach is very little feedback from the student is invited. A better approach would be to utilise student feedback as well as parental and use a combination of the two as a base for further modifications.

Another, quite different approach is the notion of self-assessment. Self-assessment is beneficial at all ages as part of self-reflection, understanding and evaluation. Self-assessment requires students to set goals about their learning and as such assists in building self-image. Consequently “as students ...

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