Constructive criticism from teachers helps students learn, as well as develop positive self-esteem

IELTS WRITING TASK 2

Constructive feedback from teachers, including deserved praise and specific suggestions, helps students learn, as well as develop positive self-esteem; to suggest the contrary can produce harmful effects.

Discuss the statement and give your opinion.

Our education system has undergone a whole host of major changes with a view to improving it day by day. It is widely believed that constructive feedback assists students in their learning and generating self-worth, which means that criticism could have negative impacts. From my perspective, I would agree with the aforementioned point of view, as I believe constructive feedback does more good than harm to students and generates high self-esteem with its suggestions and praise.

First of all, specific suggestions help students realize their shortcomings or mistakes, thereby assisting students to rectify the situation and make piecemeal changes in their way of learning. If a student had a go at correcting their own mistakes, there would be room for improvement in their education. Furthermore, deserved praise from teachers could give students faith in themselves as well as a strong belief in their good work. Consequently, students are likely to keep up with the good work and be spurred on to do better in the future. Still, teachers should remember to use positive comments moderately so as not to allow room for complacency.

Secondly, as opposed to constructive feedback, criticism can pose a serious threat and have negative impacts on students. Research has proved that students tend to learn better when provided with constructive feedback rather than with criticism from their teachers. Since after receiving negative feedback, students would feel a sense of discouragement and not feel like trying hard anymore, which then could lead to poor performance and lower grades in school. While it is unarguable that criticism at times can harden a person and drive them to grow up, not all students can actually put up with being scolded or receiving something rather negative and can easily break into tears and give up.

In conclusion, constructive feedback is beneficial to students as long as teachers use it moderately and also criticism should be avoided to minimize any possible harmful effects. In my opinion, teachers all over the world should make use of more constructive feedback in their teaching and give careful thought before providing students with negative feedback.

The writer tends to work in his personal opinions within the prompt restatement + personal opinion paragraphs. He appears to not realize that the discussion does not start in the first paragraph. It begins in the 2nd paragraph instead. Only a thesis statement that establishes his opinion topic is needed in the first paragraph to meet the task requirements. TA deductions will apply due to the errors in format presentation in the first paragraph.

Additional deductions will apply to the same paragraph as the writer does not show a degree of English word knowledge that would allow him to use word alternatives in place of keywords. This is evidence of both cut and paste along with memorized word usage. Both are TA scoredowns.


There is an error in this statement as students cannot analyze their work for errors and as such, cannot provide themselves with room for learning or correcting themselves. Only teachers can help them achieve that.

There are even more errors in this presentation that require private consultation for additional observations and suggestions for improvement .

Thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate it.
From what I have seen, you told me that "there are even more errors" so would you be so kind as to point out these errors for me? 'Cause I am quite out of time now.