Education

Keynote
Teachers need real feedback, Bill Gates
B1–C2
Discussion
1 Work in groups. Discuss the questions.
1 At work, do people tell you how well you’re doing? Who tells you and how often?
2 Is it important for teachers to be given feedback? From whom, and Why?
3 Do you think teachers in general get enough feedback on their teaching skills? Why? / Why not?
2 Look at the feedback. Which is positive (P)? Which is negative (N)?
1 Your work was absolutely outstanding. _____
2 It’s not bad, but you could have done a bit better on ... _____
3 I was particularly impressed with the way you ... _____
4 I hate to say this, but ... _____
5 I’m sure you will do better than this next time. _____
6 You did a really good job there. _____

Key words
3 Read sentences 1–8 based on Bill Gates’ TED Talk, Teachers need real feedback. Match the
words in bold with their definitions (a–h).
1 Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player or a bridge player.
2 If all my coach told me was that I was ‘satisfactory’, I would have no hope of getting better.
3 There’s one group who get almost no systematic feedback to help them do their jobs.
4 When we learned how little useful feedback most teachers get, we were blown away.
5 There are no international ranking tables for teacher feedback systems.
6 We need highly skilled teachers to help students improve in areas like reading proficiency.
7 We’re changing the way we evaluate teaching skills.
8 These helpful diagnostic tools pointed to specific places where they can improve.

a think carefully about something in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses
____________________
b techniques used to find and identify a problem ____________________
c lists of items from the best to the worst ____________________
d good enough ____________________
e careful and thorough ____________________
f ability or skill in something ____________________
g a card game played in teams of two players ____________________
h very surprised ____________________

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 Education
Teachers need real feedback
Comprehension
4 Watch Bill Gates’ talk on TED.com. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F), according to the
speaker?
1 In general, teachers receive a lot of feedback. _____
2 Receiving the word ‘satisfactory’ as feedback can help you improve your practice. _____
3 The USA’s students are in the top ten of countries for reading proficiency. _____
4 Shanghai is a good example of how helping teachers improve can raise students’
performance. _____
5 Teachers who did well in observations in the MET project had very good results
with students. _____
6 Sarah didn’t benefit from videoing her lessons. _____
7 Bill Gates hopes that all classrooms will look like Sarah’s in the future. _____
8 There are several challenges to building an effective teacher feedback system. _____
9 Bill Gates suggests that one way of making teachers feel comfortable videoing their lessons is to
say that no one except them will watch it. _____

The big idea

5 Work in groups. Discuss the questions.
1 Below are some of the arguments Bill Gates uses in support of greater teacher feedback. Which
are the most convincing? Why?
 It can help teachers reflect on their practice.
 Most teachers are not given the opportunity to develop professionally.
 There is a connection between student performance and professional development
programmes for teachers.
 A system of teacher feedback and improvement would lead to greater opportunities for all
students and would make the country fairer and more just.
 It would also make the country a more successful one.
2 How many tools to help teachers improve do you remember from the talk? Which are the most
effective in your opinion?

Language focus – professional development

6 Watch the talk from 3.03–5.27. Which ways of helping teachers be more effective are used by
the schools in Shanghai (S)? Which ways are used in the Measures of Effective Teaching project
(MET)?
1 Teachers get a chance to watch master teachers at work. _____
2 Students fill out surveys about the lessons. _____
3 Teachers get together in weekly study groups to talk about what’s working. _____
4 Teachers observe their colleagues and give them feedback. _____
5 Observers watch videos of teachers in the classroom and rate their lessons. _____
7 Find words or phrases in the sentences from Exercise 6 with the following meanings.
1 watch (a lesson) ____________________
2 tell someone about what they did and how well they did it ____________________
3 meet with other people ____________________
4 decide how good something is, evaluate it ____________________
5 complete in writing ____________________
6 be given an opportunity ____________________

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 Education
Teachers need real feedback
8 Choose the correct option. Use a dictionary if necessary.
1 I never get / give / take any feedback from my boss. Nothing, either positive or negative.
2 My tutor’s feedback on my last essay was very constructive / great / positive. He was very critical
but gave lots of helpful suggestions.
3 I like getting fast / indirect / instant feedback. The waiting can be horrible.
4 He’s very good at doing / giving / making feedback. Even when it’s quite negative, he expresses it
really sensitively.

Speaking
9 Work in groups. Decide which of the ideas would most help teachers improve professionally in
your organization and why. Consider practical problems with these ideas, such as scheduling,
and how comfortable teachers may be doing some of them.
 Regularly observing colleagues
 Being observed by the head teacher or academic director
 Observing master teachers on video
 Getting student feedback on teaching using surveys
 Meetings with colleagues to discuss best teaching practices
 Financial support to pay for professional development expenses, e.g. conferences, after-school
study groups
 Ongoing training on how to improve one’s teaching
 Other ideas

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