What's wrong with the feedback sandwich?
The feedback sandwich — open with a compliment, insert a suggestion, close with another compliment — is one of the most widely taught feedback techniques in education leadership. It also has some serious problems.
The first is that it puts all the thinking on the leader's shoulders. You observe, you diagnose, you prescribe. The teacher's role is to listen and comply. That doesn't develop professional judgment — it creates dependence.
The second is relevance. Your suggestion is based on a few minutes of a lesson you walked into without context. You don't know what the teacher was trying to accomplish, what happened before you arrived, or what's planned for tomorrow. The odds that your suggestion is the most important thing this teacher needs to hear are slim.
The third is documentation risk. If your notes from 30 visits contain 30 compliments and 15 suggestions, and you later need to recommend non-renewal, your own records undermine your case.
There are better ways to have substantive conversations that actually improve teaching. They start with understanding the teacher's goals, not delivering your verdict.
I unpack this in detail in Now We're Talking!, Day 11.
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.