International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

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Teacher feedback is considered one of the most powerful instructional variables in terms of enhancing student achievement ( Hattie 1993 ). Because teaching and learning are relational processes, teachers are both sources and receivers of feedback (→  Classroom Student–Teacher Interaction ). Teachers provide feedback to their students about their learning and they receive feedback from their students about their teaching. Ilgen et al. (1979) defined feedback from a source to a recipient as information about the correctness, accuracy, or appropriateness of the recipient's past performance. As sources of feedback, teachers encode and convey verbal and nonverbal messages to students either face-to-face or through some form of mediation, such as written comments, regarding students' past performance. As receivers of feedback, teachers receive and decode messages from students either face-to-face (i.e., students' responsive behaviors) or through some form of mediation (i.e., teacher evaluations) regarding teachers' past performance. Feedback messages have a number of common characteristics: valence, timeliness, specificity, frequency, and sensitivity ( Cusella 1987 ). Feedback valence refers to perceived attractiveness or value of the information conveyed. Positively valenced feedback consists of messages implying that the recipient's behavior or performance was satisfactory. Negatively ... log in or subscribe to read full text