Commentary: From the learner's perspective: a review of the teaching–learning relationship using audio and video feedback

Citation

Hill, J. (2023), "Commentary: From the learner's perspective: a review of the teaching–learning relationship using audio and video feedback", Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 281-283. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIT-09-2023-099

The three elements of a strong teaching–learning relationship

Teachers crave a strong relationship with their students, but what they must keep in mind is their responsibility of cultivating the key elements comprising a robust teacher–student connection. In this commentary, I used English writing as an example to explain the positive teaching–learning relationship from a learner's perspective. For writing teachers, three elements of a successful teaching–learning relationship include clarity in imparting knowledge, fair leadership and a considerable understanding of students' needs. In writing pedagogy, providing feedback to student papers is a convenient way of practicing these elements. Student paper feedback allows teachers to thoroughly articulate their expert advice on rhetoric and composition matters, show their approach to coordinating students in their authorly processes and demonstrate how well they know their students as novice writers. This ruthlessly efficient method of shaping a teaching–learning relationship's key elements will become incomparably efficient if it is delivered via audio and video instead of written annotations.

Recording feedback helps achieve clarity

Clarity in the writing classroom's teaching–learning relationship is achieved when the teacher and student both have solidly established roles as reader and writer.

Engaging in a reader, book club-like discussion with your students about their original works would be more effectively accomplished with the employment of audio and video feedback. Now, writing instructors are already skilled people in the art of written communication, but this method by which they attempt to articulate sound ideas about their students' work often presents them with a challenge. This includes figuring out a way to accurately translate mental criticism into written criticism, which, much like any process of putting thought on paper, may cause some discombobulation. As a result, writing teachers may become lost in how they perceive their students' respective papers and will not thoroughly communicate what they have in mind when they give their feedback. With audio and video feedback, such a problem would never occur. Teachers Jered Borup, Richard E. West and Rebecca Thomas provided a good example (Borup et al., 2015), where students imply that recording pedagogical feedback lifts all communication barriers that may form between writing student and teacher during the process of delivering criticism. Basically, as a writing instructor, if you choose to voice or video-record your feedback, you can open yourself up to the possibility of having a lively, more active and in-depth discussion of your student's written content, which is the very heart of author-centered discussions. As a result of such an opportunity, you will prove yourself as a reader to your students and begin treating them as writers. Once you have established these critical reader-writer terms between you and your students, your students will clearly understand what you want them to do and how. This is how you, as a teacher of English and writing, should foster the element of clarity in your teaching–learning relationship.

Recorded feedback develops leadership skills

There are two types of feedback that can, depending on which one of them you provide, define your leadership for students-closed questions and open questions (Wasik and Hindman, 2013). Open-question commenting is feedback that communicates a guide's desire to see more autonomy in their guided persons' improvement processes, which is a more holistic approach. Closed-question commenting, on the other hand, is more instructional feedback that gives writing students the impression that their teacher is a tyrant who only wants to get their way with revisions. Closed-question commenting often comes in written form, and due to this, it turns out to be an extremely condensed, callous version of an instructor's suggestions for authorly improvement, which is essentially nothing more than a list of strict orders. This is where audio and video feedback come into play as important means by which writing teachers can avoid such an issue.

By verbalizing their ideas and thoughts about a paper, teachers will, just like in any actual conversation, experience fewer constraints when it comes to articulation, thus resulting in instructional feedback that treats students like mature individuals capable of making their own decisions about their creations (Borup et al., 2015).

Switching to audio and video-recorded feedback meets students' needs

As a writing teacher, it is your objective to give students feedback that sounds like you know what they need, and what they need is a little pat on the back. Writing students, as beginners, can become more encouraged to improve when they are told, as kindly as possible, that their efforts are acknowledged and commendable (Garino, 2019). Writing teachers, on the other hand, are experts and generally benefit from more demanding criticism. According to all this information, you can achieve a solid understanding of your students' needs by composing feedback that is expected fairly and that feedback is known famously as constructive criticism. Audio and video feedbacks are essentially synonymous with constructive criticism. Audio- and video-recorded feedback, because they are not bound to the earlier-described restrictions of written feedback, give teachers the opportunity to take into account students' emotional response and adjust their language to best accommodate it (Borup et al., 2015). This makes audio and video-recorded feedback an asset to the writing teacher's box of tools.

Conclusion: audio and video feedback should be a tool for a positive teaching–learning relationship

Classrooms of all subjects and levels (i.e. k-12 and higher education math, science, history, etc.) need to practice audio and video feedback if they wish for a positive teaching–learning relationship. Audio and video feedback establish your pedagogical purpose and your students' purposes as effective learners, make you the leader you want to be and help you connect with your students on a deeper, more emotional level. Teachers, if you desire a powerful teaching–learning relationship with your students, please enhance your communication with audio and video feedback.