Effective Feedback Starts with Questions

More than 240 people registered for ITI’s recent From Teacher to Trainer webinar, with over 70 teachers joining us live. The level of interest suggested that many experienced teachers are thinking about how they might begin supporting the development of their colleagues.

Moving into teacher training can seem like a natural progression. Experienced teachers possess classroom knowledge, practical ideas and a considerable repertoire of teaching techniques. However, being an effective teacher does not automatically make someone an effective teacher trainer. Training requires a shift in our role, our relationships and, perhaps most importantly, the way we use our experience.

Teaching and training are different

When we teach learners, we usually work within a structure created by a curriculum, syllabus or coursebook. We make many decisions on the learners’ behalf: what they need to learn, which activities they will complete and how their progress will be assessed.

When we work with teachers, our role is less directive. Teacher development cannot simply be delivered to someone. Teachers bring their own experience, beliefs, knowledge, personalities and professional identities to the process. The trainer’s role is to create the conditions in which they can examine their teaching, identify their needs and make informed decisions about their development.

This means moving from giving answers to facilitating thinking.

Some people prefer the term teacher educator, while others describe themselves as trainers, mentors, coaches, academic managers or Directors of Studies. These roles are not identical, but they share an important purpose: helping teachers understand and develop their practice.

What do teacher trainers do?

Teacher trainers generally work in three interconnected areas.

1. Designing and facilitating workshops

Training workshops provide structured opportunities for teachers to encounter new ideas, examine their existing beliefs and share their experiences.

An effective workshop is not simply a lecture about teaching. It should model good learning by involving participants actively, drawing on their knowledge and giving them opportunities to apply ideas to their own contexts.

2. Observing teaching

Observation helps trainers and teachers gather evidence about what happens in the classroom. It can reveal patterns that may be difficult for a teacher to notice while managing a lesson.

Observation should not be treated simply as inspection or evaluation. Used developmentally, it provides a focus for reflection and a starting point for professional dialogue.

3. Facilitating feedback

Feedback is not merely a trainer telling a teacher what was good or bad about a lesson. Its purpose is to help the teacher understand what happened, consider the effect on learning and decide what to do next.

Unless feedback leads to reflection and purposeful action, it is unlikely to produce lasting development.

Four temptations facing new trainers

When experienced teachers become trainers, their knowledge can sometimes become an obstacle. We naturally want to be helpful, but being helpful does not always mean providing an immediate solution.

There are four common temptations.

1. Giving the answer too quickly

A teacher describes a problem and we immediately explain what they should do. The advice may be sensible, but the teacher has not necessarily understood the problem or developed a solution they believe in.

Advice is more likely to be remembered and applied when the teacher has participated in creating it.

This does not mean that trainers should never offer ideas. It means that we should not give an answer before allowing the teacher to think.

2. Demonstrating our own solution

Experienced trainers often have a large collection of successful activities and techniques. It is tempting to say, “This is what I did with my class last week.”

Sharing experience can be useful, but our solution was developed for our learners, personality and teaching context. It may not transfer successfully to another teacher’s classroom.

Instead of presenting our approach as the answer, we can offer it as one possibility and invite the teacher to evaluate or adapt it.

3. Beginning with an evaluation

Imagine beginning a feedback meeting by saying:

“Your teacher talking time was too high.”

Even if the observation is accurate, the statement invites the teacher either to agree or disagree. If the teacher responds, “I don’t think it was,” the conversation can quickly become an argument between two opinions.

A more productive starting point is to explore what happened:

• What were the learners doing during that stage?
• What opportunities did they have to speak?
• How long did the explanation take?
• What effect did this have on their participation?

These questions establish a shared account of the lesson before either person evaluates it.

4. Prescribing a technique

Telling a teacher to use group work, change an activity or adopt a particular technique may appear practical. However, teaching decisions are influenced by deeply held beliefs.

A teacher may believe that group work is unsuitable because learners use their first language. Simply instructing the teacher to use group work is unlikely to change that belief. The trainer needs to understand it, explore the evidence behind it and help the teacher identify a manageable experiment.

Professional development involves more than collecting techniques. It often requires us to examine the beliefs that shape our decisions.

A three-stage framework for developmental feedback

A useful feedback conversation can move through three stages: evidence, analysis and action.

Stage 1: Evidence—what happened?

Begin by establishing a description of the lesson.

Questions might include:

• What instructions did you give?
• How did you organise the groups?
• What did the learners do next?
• What evidence suggested that they understood the task?
• Who participated and who did not?

This stage keeps the discussion grounded in observable events rather than judgments.

For example, imagine that a role play did not work successfully. Some groups were uneven, learners read their role cards aloud and much of the discussion took place in their first language.

Beginning with “Your instructions were unclear” is an evaluation. Asking “What instructions did you give?” allows the teacher to reconstruct the lesson and begin noticing possible causes.

Stage 2: Analysis—why did it happen?

Once trainer and teacher have established what happened, they can explore why it happened and what effect it had on learning.

Questions might include:

• Which parts of the activity worked as you expected?
• Where did the learners experience difficulty?
• Why do you think that happened?
• What effect did the groupings have?
• What helped or prevented learners from completing the task?
• What would you change if you taught the lesson again?

The trainer’s job is not to lead the teacher towards a predetermined answer. It is to remain genuinely curious. Our initial interpretation may be incomplete or wrong.

Stage 3: Action—what could happen next?

Reflection becomes developmental when it results in action.

The final stage helps the teacher identify alternatives and decide what to try:

• How could you set up the activity differently?
• What could you do to check that the instructions are understood?
• Which alternative would be realistic with this class?
• What will you try in your next lesson?
• What evidence will show you whether it worked?

The teacher remains the decision-maker. The trainer can contribute ideas, but these are possibilities to consider rather than instructions to follow.

A simple way to remember the framework is:

What happened? → Why did it happen? → What will you try next?

Relationships come before techniques

Questioning frameworks are useful, but teacher development is not a mechanical process. The success of a feedback conversation depends heavily on the relationship between the trainer and the teacher.

Effective trainers need presence, empathy, active listening and genuine curiosity. They also need the courage to raise difficult issues when necessary.

Different teachers require different kinds of support. A new teacher may need encouragement and greater structure. A highly experienced teacher may expect a more equal, exploratory conversation. A teacher who appears resistant may have had previous experiences of observation that felt judgmental or threatening.

There is no single feedback formula that will work with everyone. Trainers need to respond to the person in front of them.

Trust does not mean avoiding difficult feedback. It creates the conditions in which difficult issues can be explored productively.

Development requires experimentation

Teaching is complex, and it is rarely useful to ask a teacher to reflect on an entire lesson at once. Reflection becomes more productive when it has a clear focus.

The teacher might examine instructions, learner participation, questioning, group organisation or responses to learner errors. They can then:

1. identify what happened;
2. consider its effect on learning;
3. explore possible alternatives;
4. try something different;
5. gather evidence and reflect again.

Professional learning therefore involves experimentation. Not every new approach will work immediately, but an unsuccessful experiment can still provide valuable information.

The aim is not to produce teachers who depend on trainers for answers. It is to help teachers become increasingly able to analyse their own classrooms, make informed decisions and take responsibility for their continuing development.

Are you ready to move from teacher to trainer?

ITI’s Train the Trainer course is an eight-week, part-time online professional-development programme for experienced English language teachers who want to support less experienced colleagues.

Participants learn how to identify teachers’ development needs, plan and facilitate training sessions, observe lessons and conduct developmental feedback. The course includes guided online study, compulsory practical tasks, two live Zoom sessions and opportunities to deliver live workshops and receive feedback on their training.

There is no formal examination or final written assessment. Participants who complete the compulsory tasks receive an ITI Certificate of Completion and are qualified to train teachers on selected ITI courses, subject to the requirements of the particular course.

The next course begins on 24 August 2026.

• Duration: Eight weeks
• Study commitment: Approximately four to six hours per week
• Course fee: £385
• Application deadline: 21 August 2026

If you are ready to move beyond developing learners and begin developing teachers, the Train the Trainer course will help you build the practical skills, confidence and reflective approach you need.

Find out more and apply: https://eltica.org/courses/iti-train-the-trainer-online-2026-august-24-d0d547