Investigating Teachers’ Perceptions of Feedback

In writing classes, teacher feedback is critical in helping students improve on their writing. However, research on teachers’ views regarding their own feedback practice has been modest. Through focus-group discussions, this study investigated the views of nine writing teachers regarding their feedback practice. The teachers were experienced faculty members in a Singaporean university. The interviews revealed that the teachers’ practice was shaped by their beliefs about the needs and capabilities of their students, but that such belief-based practice was often limited by contextual factors. Feedback also tended to be unidirectional, from the teacher to the student, with little opportunity for dialogue between the two parties. These findings point to the need for teacher feedback to be dialogic in nature to ensure that the feedback truly addresses the needs of students. Further work remains to be done to better understand the views of writing teachers in other universities and cultures.