Are teachers trained in how to give feedback at parents evening?

[Canyoucheckonme]

Just wondering, as my experience is that most can't be...

No I never was, and I found it so intimidating and tricky the first time. Just making everything clear and honest was difficult without using jargon or feeling awkward. Much easier now as it's been years!

Nope, just expected to get on with it. Like many other things...

Trainees are expected to go to at least one parents evening and observe the main teacher give feedback. How much this actually happens I don't know. And observing isn't the same as actually practising giving feedback.

I watched my teacher mentor do one during my final placement, in about the March, I think. After that, nothing.

No.

Doctors are trained in giving news to patients and their families. Teachers aren't trained in giving feedback to families. I suppose this is because of the length of the relative training courses, and because it is generally overlooked how important feedback to parents is.

It's such an important thing to get right I feel (as someone who is trained in giving and receiving feedback, and trains others to do it).

I find too many start with a negative, don't make eye contact, look uncomfortable, focus purely on test results and academic performance when the children are young and I don't really care, and don't give personalised or descriptive feedback.

I don't look forward to parents evenings any more because of it. I cringe when they say or do certain things, knowing there is a much better way of doing it.

Sad really there's no time or budget for learning this skill. The teachers I've met over the years who have done it well tend to be naturally warmer, more empathic people who relax and give genuine, honest and relevant feedback (and always start and end with something positive!).

@Pforpizza there was a trainee teacher in with the main teacher when I was at my 9yo's parents evening this week. I hope to goodness she doesn't just do what that teacher does. Absolutely nothing about my child's personality, qualities or positive attributes. Just told us, in a rather disinterested fashion imo, how he's doing academically and talked a lot about areas he needs to improve on in maths.

My DC’s teacher certainly can’t have been. She needs to learn about the shit sandwich concept!

Exactly. Not difficult to remember the sugar shit sandwich I don't think. And that parents like to hear a little about things like if their child is helpful, friendly, polite, respectful, funny etc not just "he needs to read test papers more carefully".

For their sakes I hope so as how parents take the truth could be anything "my little darling could not possibly be like that it is everyone else"

I think in some schools teachers are encouraged to stick to facts and keep it simple to protect themselves. It's sad but I think often they either aren't allowed, or are too scared, to give genuine and honest feedback as some parents can look for any opportunity to complain. Also, with more children in a class they may struggle to have enough time to give more than that anyway.

I wouldn't say your example about reading papers more carefully was a negative about a child, but it is constructive and gives an idea what they need help with/to work on.

Please please please I beg you, don't employ this old fashioned "sugar sandwich" technique, it is a very clumsy and childish manipulation technique, and when it was common, left an entire cohort of children suspicious of praise, and likely to disregard anything good said about them, especially if it came before and after something negative - I am amazed you say you train people on giving feedback, and are still advocating this, despite the evidence on how damaging it is - similar to the "3 stars and a wish" technique, which simply trained children that the first 3 positive thing said about them were meaningless, and simply to fulfil a quota of " good things " that were supposed to be said before something negative could be approached.

Just be straight forward and truthful, that is all that is needed in giving feedback.

I’m glad someone said this! I was also trained not to give a shit sandwich, though this is more because the receiver only hears the good things and forgets the thing they need to improve on, making the conversation pointless.

no teachers are not trained in this. Also bear in mind you often only get 5-10 minutes, including, greeting, pleasantries, and physically moving in and out of the room. It’s such a short time to say much. Many many teachers are also surprisingly nervous about talking to other adults - absolutely fine in front of a class of kids but clam up in front of adults. I do agree it would be a good thing for them to be trained in.

Please bear in mind that teachers, especially in Secondary, might teach 200 children. We have 5 minutes to talk to you. It’s after a full working day, and before another one. We’ve not had time to eat. Please don’t expect War and Peace. Expect us to tell you if they are organised, well behaved, doing homework, maybe the latest exam results, and an area to work on.

Oh, and it’s really useful if you sit down and say “Hello, I’m Jane, I’m Bob’s mum”. It is not helpful to make me guess which child you own.

I'm not a teacher but I assume their job on patents evening is to focus on how the DC is doing in school and in lessons? not comment on their character or personality which OP feels was lacking.

Could you share some of this research? I’d be interested to read it

I'm often doing parents evening at the end of a 12 hour working day with back to back appointments for 3 hours straight. I teach approximately 210 different students in a week. The sad truth is I likely won't even be 100 % sure of what some kids are called, especially if they aren't particularly noticeable in a specifically positive or negative way. It's really shit, and I hate it, but I'm simply not given enough time and resources to do my job properly.

On (secondary) teaching practice I did two parents' evenings, with the teacher taking the lead at the first and me leading the second. In secondary, the subject has to be the focus.

I think teachers who aren't parents don't always realise the emotions involved for the parents - at parents' evenings and in other interactions. I remember one mum-friend being ecstatic after parents' evening, because after many days of picking up her son and being told what he'd done wrong that day, at parents' evening she discovered that the teacher did actually like her son, despite his misdemeanours!

We think we were on the receiving end of "teacher not sure which child she is". My husband was concerned, but I pointed out that the teacher was new, teaching about 600 kids, and he clearly knew she was "one of that trio", which was enough for his feedback to be correct. I've done a couple of parents evenings less than a month into a contract - it was hard work to make sure I had all the names matched up.

I would just like to throw in there also that different parents want different feedback. I have told parents in the past essentially that their children are nice people and they look at me like I am mad because all they want to know about is test results. Other parents are really pleased to hear that. To a certain extent, I take my lead from the parents, but your assumption that focusing on test results etc is not what parents want does not apply in all cases.

Absolutely. As a parent I just want to hear how they are doing academically. All the rest is just fluff. How are they doing, anything we can do to help. Lovely to meet you. Thank you. Move on.

Presumably the teacher thought you already knew about their personality, qualities and positive attributes but might not be aware of what they need to do to improve in maths!

I never got any information on how to conduct a parent's evening when training, many years ago.

Dd has just finished her teaching degree and she sat in on one parent's evening during her last placement.

I’ve got a (teacher) friend who was told her daughter was ‘kind, helpful, friendly’ (or similar) to which she responded ‘thanks, that’s my good parenting. Now tell me about their learning’ 😂

as above - some parents want the fluff, others want the academic detail. You can’t please everyone.

Nope. Not during ITT or any CPD since I began teaching in the 1990s.

We just have to do our best.

Yes, some of them are. And communicating with parents/carers is now an element of the compulsory early career framework (for teachers in their first two years) so all of them should be from now on. The ECF and initial teacher education content I've seen all contains training e.g. about the importance of accuracy, clarity, constructive communication, explaining strengths and areas for development etc.