Learning with Descriptive Feedback

What Is Learning with Descriptive Feedback?

As suggested by Dr. Peter Liljedahl in his innovative Building Thinking Classrooms and TDSB's high-impact instructional practices, one ideal learning environment occurs when the teacher provides descriptive feedback to students so they can move on with their learning in the classroom.  Depending on the learning styles, preferences, and needs of the students, the teacher will need to figure out how to answer their questions in the best way, which could be providing students with:

• indirect support with trust and appropriate hints, or

• direct support with scaffolding questions and detailed explanations

The teacher's responses to students' struggles need to be carefully examined, planned, and executed so that students' thinking is not interfered with or stopped.  Mr. Ho has just started this initiative to promote thinking in his math classroom.  However, the teacher will need to regularly monitor students at the VNPS to ensure all students remain engaged throughout the class.

Pictures of Students in Random Groups Supported Indirectly or Directly by Mr. Ho