
Building Trust Through Feedback: Transforming Higher Education Classrooms
By Breana Bayraktar, Kiruthika Ragupathi and Katherine A. Troyer
Our recent research on building trust through feedback in higher education has significant implications for teaching practices across disciplines. We discovered that creating a trusting feedback environment involves a delicate interplay between “relationship-building learning environment conditions” and agency-developing feedback practices. While conducting this research, we learned that trust isn’t just about what instructors say in their feedback, but also about the environment they create. Our approach combined qualitative analysis of instructor perspectives with existing literature on trust and feedback. We were drawn to this approach because it allowed us to capture the rich, nuanced experiences of educators while grounding our findings in established research. From ongoing work on the relationship between trust and feedback in the higher education classroom, we developed the cyclical helix model, which visually represents the dynamic and mutually reinforcing interplay between learning environment conditions and feedback practices. This model offers a fresh perspective on how trust is built and can be maintained and developed through feedback interactions in educational settings.
This project is close to our hearts because we believe that trust is fundamental to effective learning. We’re inspired by the potential to transform classrooms into spaces where students feel valued, heard, and empowered to take charge of their learning journey. We hope educators take away that building trust through feedback is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. It requires consistent effort in cultivating both environmental conditions and specific feedback practices.
We’re grateful to the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University for supporting our initial research and for ongoing support from Jessie Moore, Eric Hall, Buffy Longmire-Avital, and all seminar participants. Finally, we are thankful for our research participants, whose candid responses provided invaluable insights.
Read the TLI article here.