Discussion of the Students’ Perception on the Supervisor’s Feedback
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work setting, social setting, etc. as explained by Robbins 2005. Altman added that the differences are influenced by one’s self-concept, stereotyping, first
impressions, etc 1985. Those factors might influence the students’ perception but overall, the result of the questionnaire showed that the perception of the
Microteaching students on the feedback they got from the lecturers was positive. Feedback was behind the students’ improvement in teaching. The feedback
was helpful and important for them. It brought them a lot of knowledge about teaching. Below was the result of the research which showed the students’
perception on the feedback they got from the lecturers.
1 Feedback is helpful in improving students’ teaching performance.
The feedback helped the students of Microteaching to improve their performance since the purpose of feedback, according to Lewis 2002:4, is to
lead the student to realize their own mistake. The result of the questionnaire which was presented in Figure 3 clearly showed that 95 of the students agreed with
that. The students clarified it in the questionnaire that the feedback showed them their weaknesses as well as the strengths.
The students paid more attention to the weaknesses and made an effort to improve it. They did not want to have the same mistake they had in the previous
teaching practice like they mentioned in the questionnaire: “Feedback is really helpful for me, feedback is beneficial. Of course, it can motivate me to not repeat
my previous mistake and try to improve myself to be better” and other students wrote: “I think it is very helpful. I can learn from my mistakes. It also motivates
me to improve my performance, including preparing materials, having good
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appearance, using media, and so on.” The feedback helped them to realize what went well and what went wrong in their performance. As a result, they could both
improve or develop it. Lewis noted that feedback provided the students with language input 2002. The language input the students got from the feedback was
about any aspects of English teaching, for example, the feedback was about grammar, pronunciation, materials, teaching techniques, time management,
appearance etc. Other purpose of feedback according to Lewis 2002 is that it provides
students with advice in learning that makes the feedback was helpful for the students. In the questionnaire, some students mentioned the advice they got from
the lecturer, such as “mind your set induction and make sure that it is related with the topic”, “use better modeling for the class”, “prepare the handouts because it
helps the students to understand a difficult topic”, etc.
2 Feedback improves students’ teaching performance.
In Microteaching class, feedback improved the students’ performance. It could be seen from Figure 2, that almost all students of Microteaching classes 93
considered feedback to be helpful in improving their performance. The students also stated that the feedback was helpful in reflecting how well they teach. Some
students stated neutral 5 due to their opinion; it was just like a verbal assessment in which the details are available rather than something that could
improve them. Also, the feedback did not really improve their performance that personally they believed that it was difficult to perform better.
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To see the improvement that the students stated in the interview, the writer observed three video recordings of the students’ teaching performance. It could be
seen from the video that there were some improvements on their performance after getting the feedback. For example, students 1 stated in the interview that the
feedback he got from the progress test 1 was about his being awkward in front of the class. In his video recording of the progress test 1, the writer observed that the
student did not make many movements. He also did little communication with the students, but in the second video, he could make movements that he walked here
and there and became more communicative. There was also an improvement on the performance of student 2. It was about
time management. She stated in the interview that she was anxious about the time that she finished it 5 minutes earlier. The writer observed her first video and it
could be seen that she finished the teaching earlier before the time was over, but in the second video, she could finish it in time. An improvement of appearance
was also experienced by student 2. She explained that the feedback she got was about her wearing short sleeves in her teaching practice. In second video, it could
be observed that she wore long sleeves rather than the short one. Other improvement was happened on student 7’s performance. In the first video, she
always held a handout and she dropped it inadvertently. She also stated in the interview, “aku apa suka megang kertas terus jatoh ato apa gerakan - gerakan
yang kurang penting kaya gitu… ya tadi ternyata aku kertasnya tak pake maenan secara ga, di bawah alam sadar ku”. In the second video, the writer observed that
she was better in managing his gesture.
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Next, the writer would discuss how feedback could improve the students’ performance. Smith mentioned that feedback can facilitate behavioral changes and
that the result of feedback would help the students to make improvements in some aspects 1987. In Microteaching class, feedback brought about an improvement
for it showed the students how language is used and how to teach well. Previous study at Stanford found that students found significant improvements because of
the feedback Fortune, Cooper, and Allen, 1967; Cooper and Stroud, 1967. In the interview, they added that after getting the feedback, they felt the improvement
from the first teaching. The students did better and became more confident in the next teaching practice.
3 Feedback motivates students in improving their teaching performance.
Motivation was also needed to encourage students in teaching Lewis, 2002. The motivation itself came from the feedback from the lecturers as their
supervisor. Based on Figure 4, it was obviously seen that the majority of the students were motivated by the feedback to perform well in the next teaching
practice. The students clarified it in the interview that the feedback motivated them to
improve their ability in teaching. They added that sometimes they was hurt because of the feedback as they had prepared everything well, but the result was
not as good as they expected. However, at the same time the feedback motivated them to make a progress since it presented them their weaknesses. It proved the
purposes of feedback by Lewis 2002 that feedback contained motivation for students who receive it. Furthermore, students noted that the feedback also
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provided advices and suggestions for them to think about and apply in the next teaching practice. It provided evidence for Lewis’ 2002 explanation that students
could get learning advices through feedback. It helped the students to raise their confidence in teaching because they could see their strengths through the
feedback. The feedback also supported them to improve their teaching performance.
4 The lecturers’ ways in giving the feedback is appropriate.
As Lewis 2002 mentioned, there were some ways in conveying feedback to the students. It could be given individually or in front of the whole class, directly
or indirectly, in a spoken or written form, specific or general, or the combination of them. Each lecturer had different way in conveying the feedback one to
another. In general, the students considered the way the lecturers gave the feedback was
appropriate. The result of the questionnaire accounted for it. It could be seen in that in class D, the majority of the students 95 regarded the way the lecturer in
giving the feedback as appropriate way. They explained that the feedback was given in group, individually, and in front of the class. The feedback was both in
written and spoken form and it was detail and specific. They were satisfied with the way the lecturer gave the feedback. The students made an explanation that the
lecturer did not only gave the feedback, but also discussed it with the students concerned. The lecturer gave an opinion about the students’ performance and
attempted to let the students know which part needed to be improved. In the discussion, the lecturer also gave chance for other students to comment on their
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friends’ performance. Having the feedback in such a way, the students got a complete description of how they did the teaching. In addition to that, the
feedback was given to each student in different group based on the skill they taught. As a result, the students could learn from their friends’ experience in
teaching a skill. The students added that the feedback was given in the right time; directly after the teaching practice, and in other room where they could have a
discussion face to face. However, there were still some students who did not think it was appropriate. In his opinion, it would be better if the feedback was given
after each student had performed. Almost the same with class E, the students considered the way the lecturer
gave the feedback to the students was quite appropriate. From the questionnaire, 81 of the students considered that it was an appropriate way of giving feedback.
Based on the observation and the result of the questionnaire, the lecturer gave the feedback after all of the students had done the teaching practice. It was given
orally in one additional meeting. The students clarified that it was fair enough to give the feedback after all the students had performed. Having this way, all
students had a chance to avoid the mistake. They added that if the feedback was given after each student practice, other students could learn from the first students
who had performed while the first student had no chance to avoid a mistake since heshe was as the model for other students who had not performed yet.
On the other hand, some students 14 stated neutral in responding the way the lecturer in giving the feedback. In the first meeting, students and the lecturers
made an agreement that the feedback would be given in the end of the series of
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the teaching practice; meaning to say it was after all of the students in the class had finished the teaching practice. The student explained that in fact, sometimes
the lecturer gave feedback after some students had the teaching practice, which meant that the lecturer broke the rule. It was the reason for some students who
stated neutral for the statement about the way the lecturer in giving the feedback. For some students, the way the lecturer gave the feedback was not appropriate.
They shared that when the feedback was given after all the students had done the teaching practice, it was rather hard for the students to remember how their
performance was since it was a long time after they performed. The oral feedback also made the students got no detail explanation about the feedback on how they
taught because it was in general. Another student added that it the lecturer seldom gave the feedback.
Class G had their own perception about the way the lecturer gave the feedback. In their opinion, the way the lecturer in giving the feedback was
appropriate. Through the observation that the writer had done during some meetings, it could be seen that the lecturer mostly gave written feedback. It was
given after the students had the teaching practice. Deeper information gained through interview was that sometimes the feedback was given orally and it was
more general than the written one. Some students explained that in the written form, the feedback was specific and details so the students could see what went
well and wrong clearly. In the questionnaire, students made an explanation that it was appropriate since having the written feedback, the students did not feel
embarrassed and worried to their peers’ opinion toward their performance.
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Another student stated that he got a feeling that the lecturer cared about his progress in teaching since the feedback was personally given to each student in a
form of the written feedback.
5 Students put serious concern on the feedback.
Feedback was one of any other factors influencing students’ improvement in teaching. It was the reflection on how they did the teaching and to improve their
teaching performance, they need to pay more attention to the feedback they got from the lecturer. Through a questionnaire and interview, the writer attempted to
find out how the students gave response to the feedback. The result of the questionnaire showed that 75 of the students put serious concern on the
feedback. A student said in the interview, “feedbacknya jadi pertimbangan khusus, yang disorotin jadi itu”. It was showing the students’ concern on the
feedback. Students defined feedback as a good reflection of their performance which showed them their strength and weaknesses. They learned their strengths
to be developed and their weaknesses to be improved through the feedback. Moreover, they would like to know their progress in teaching that they put serious
consideration on the feedback. In contrast, there was a student stated that once he got the feedback, he just read it and forgot the advices afterwards.
The explanations above indicated that feedback is indeed important for the Microteaching students in preparing them to be a teacher. It referred to the theory
of Paul Black and Dylan Williams which stated that feedback was the most important factor on students’ achievement 1998. It was evidently seen from the
result of the questionnaire that there was about 93 of the students put
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themselves in the agreement that feedback was important for them to improve their teaching performance. In the interview, the students said, “… saya tu
mengantisipasi, mengimprovisasi mengajar itu dari feedback. Sebelum, sebelum ngajar, ya tentu saya jentrek dulu feedback nya. Tak tak liat lagi dimana saya
kurangnya dan itu berpengaruh pada teknik saya. Gitu lho. Ritme ngajarnya, jadi ketemu gitu kan, dipaparkan, dijadiin pedoman”.
6 Feedback is important in improving students’ teaching performance.
Feedback was seen as something important that the feedback was considered as their guidance. In some ways, feedback was also influencing their success in
teaching. Feedback then became the need of almost of the Microteaching students to help them to improve their teaching performance as seen in the result of the
questionnaire.
7 Feedback from the lecturers is more reliable than the peer.
Supervisors or the lecturers had influence on the development of the students in a matter of attitudes and teaching styles Switzer, 1976. For most of the students,
feedback from the lecturers was reliable than the peer. The result of the questionnaire indicated that 61 of the students believed that the feedback they
got from the lecturer was more reliable. According to Allen and Ryan 1969, supervisors are teaching and research assistant that normally had a minimum of
three years of classroom experience and are essential teachers. Furthermore, Carl D. Glickman mentioned that “most supervisors are former teachers” 1985:76.
The feedback which lecturers gave to the students was based on their experience that they could provide the students with constructive feedback that their peer
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could not. The lecturers, as the supervisors could see the strengths and weaknesses of the students deeper on the skills and at the same time could give suggestions to
them. In other words, lecturers knew well about teaching so he she could provide the real feedback for the students.