Teaching is a life-long learning process, especially when a teacher starts teaching in a college without any hands-on experience of dealing with the classroom principles, and learning on one's own the skills of management to impress, review, conduct, teach, learn, motivate, discipline and facilitate the students to achieve their goal. Often a teacher is left in the lurk to understand his/her own teaching capabilities and strengths and weaknesses. With experience comes the `power to hold' the students and the genuine worth of compassionate teaching is lost. For an experienced or an inexperienced teacher, what is probably needed at all stages, is a constant reminder and a note of caution to prevent him/her to digress from their real work of teaching and falling prey to corrupted flattery, prejudices, politics of the system and slow lethargy, which creeps in and engulf as the years pass by. A constant feedback is desirable on what the teachers do, what they say, and what works or does not work in the classroom.
Feedback has been defined as, "a process of sharing observations, concerns and suggestions with the other person with an intention of improving his/her performance as an individual". In the words of Donald T Tosti, "Feedback is information about the performance that leads to action to change or maintain performance". Perhaps, for a moment, one may pause and wonder: Is the feedback the criterion for judgement? Don't I know what my strengths and weaknesses are? Am I not a good face reader and an observer who can make my own conjectures?
|