How do I give feedback without making teachers defensive?
First, recognize that defensiveness is a normal, rational response. If someone with the power to evaluate your employment walks in unannounced and starts offering suggestions, self-protection is the natural reaction. That's not a character flaw — it's human.
The most effective approach is to spend far less time giving feedback than most leaders expect. Instead of offering your assessment, share what you observed and ask the teacher to reflect on it. When teachers do most of the thinking, they're more likely to arrive at insights they'll actually act on.
When feedback is appropriate, make sure it's connected to the teacher's own goals rather than your priorities. Teachers want to know that you noticed what they were working on — not that you spotted something unrelated you'd like them to change. There's a world of difference between "Have you considered using more wait time?" and "You mentioned you were working on discussion quality — here's what I noticed about how students responded today."
I explore this in depth across several chapters of Now We're Talking!, especially Days 11, 14, and 15.
From the Book
Now We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership
About the Author
Justin Baeder, PhD
Justin Baeder, PhD is Director of The Principal Center, where he helps senior leaders in K–12 organizations build capacity for instructional leadership. A former principal in Seattle Public Schools, he is the creator of the Instructional Leadership Challenge, which has helped more than 10,000 school leaders in 50 countries around the world:
- Confidently get into classrooms every day
- Have feedback conversations that change teacher practice
- Discover their best opportunities for school improvement
Dr. Baeder directs the Instructional Leadership Association, the premiere professional membership for school leaders, and is the author of three Solution Tree books on instructional leadership:
- Now We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership
- Mapping Professional Practice: How to Develop Instructional Frameworks to Support Teacher Growth (with Heather Bell-Williams)
- Cultivate and Activate: Building Teacher Capacity for Instructional Leadership (with Keith Fickel)
Justin is the host of Principal Center Radio, a long-running audio podcast featuring more than 400 education thought leaders and more than 500 books, as well as The Teaching Show and The Eduleadership Show. A prolific education commentator, he has more than 250,000 followers and 30,000,000 annual impressions on social media, and is frequently consulted by major media outlets on issues of education research, policy, and practice.
As a consultant, trainer, and speaker, Dr. Baeder has worked onsite with groups across the US, Canada, and Central America, and virtually with groups across the Middle East, Australia, and around the world. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and regularly provides administrator professional development on classroom walkthroughs, teacher evaluation, and instructional leadership.
He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies from the University of Washington and an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from Seattle University, and is a graduate of the Danforth Program for Educational Leadership at UW.