Õpetaja tagasiside õpilase vastusele algkoolitunnis
Teacher’s feedback to students’ answers in primary school lessons

Summary/Abstract: The objective of the paper is to analyse teacher’s feedback to students’ answers and to outline the structure of teacher-initiated question sequences in Estonian primary school lessons. The teacher’s feedback is analysed from two points of view. First, how is the teacher’s feedback related to the content of the question, i.e. does the teacher’s feedback to the answer to a question aimed to check a pupil’s knowledge differ from her feedback to theanswer to a question about the pupil? Second, what is the function of the teacher’s feedback; how does the teacher’s feedback determine the course of further interaction? The survey is based on a transcribed collection of video-recordings (280 min in total) of Estonian and mathematics lessons that took place in 1st-3rd forms at a school in Tartu, Estonia. The main results of the analysis are as follows. The teacher leads the course of the lesson with utmost resolution. The possibility of student-initiated activity is minimal. This is illustrated by the following facts. (1) The teacher’s feedback terminating the question sequence is predominant irrespective of the content of the questions. The majority of the question sequences initiated by the teacher constitute a triadic structure (question-answer-feedback) even if the teacher’s pedagogical aim is to develop a conversation. (2) The teacher uses next to no minimal continuers as feedback. The majority of the teacher’s feedback encouraging the pupils to continue are specifying questions about the answer just given.

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