Adults Need Feedback Too!
By Diane Cunningham
Feedback is an essential component of learning for both children and adults.When provided during the learning process, it can allow a learner to reflect, make adjustments and improve. Many researchers have documented the value of feedback for students (Brookhart 2008, Bransford, Brown & Cocking 2000). While there is great agreement that students need feedback, we sometimes forget that adults need feedback too, especially when they take on new roles and responsibilities. Many teachers choose to make a commitment to facilitate the learning of other adults. They take on coaching or mentoring roles, organize and lead collegial circles, agree to chair a department or become staff developers. Often, they embark on this new journey with little feedback on their practice. Supporting these educators in their new roles demands on-going feedback focused on both the pedagogical content and facilitation skills. Your patience with my questions, the small group work, the warm and cool feedback and many other activities made me realize how far my learning has come this year. As an individual I have made great strides. This new learning has changed my thinking as well as my teaching… (Lisa Augustine, Literacy Coach in Patchogue-Medford Schools)
Lisa participated in a leadership experience called a “facilitator program” designed to deepen her understanding of quality assessment practice and to nurture her transition from teacher to facilitator of adult learners. Her cohort consisted of classroom teachers, special area teachers, elementary principals, and coaches who had made a commitment to facilitate the learning of others in the area of quality assessment practice. They worked together over four days, and each phase of their work embedded feedback as an essential element of the learning process. Feedback included specific, descriptive responses to teachers’ questions, work and performances. It was not the sole responsibility of the program leader to provide feedback; rather every member of the learning community provided feedback - in one-on-one conversations, in small or large group discussions and in writing.
Phase One: Wearing the Hat of Adult Learner – Exploring Best Practices The first phase of Lisa’s experience focused on deepening understanding of quality assessment practice – a focus chosen by her district based on a needs assessment of teacher practice. The program leader crafted a one-day workshop that engaged everyone in an exploration of quality assessment practice. The day was designed to model appropriate strategies and approaches for working with adult learners and to allow the participants to explore best practices in assessment.
First, the activities were designed to access the wealth of knowledge these educators brought with them and allowed them to build on their current understanding. Second, they required that educators engage in dialogue and access the expertise and perspectives they brought as well as the insights gained from recent professional literature. Third, activities provided examples of quality assessment practice to support collaborative opportunities to apply new learning through design. In addition, the day was designed to embed feedback during the learning. (Popham 2008, Brookhart 2008)
One example of embedded feedback required that as participants learned and designed, they “captured” their insights and questions on index cards. For example, one educator wrote, “I am getting confused between metacognitive knowledge and procedural knowledge” and another wrote, “How do I know if my assessment is linked to metacognitive knowledge and process assessment?” After collecting multiple questions related to metacognitive knowledge, the program leader structured an “on-the spot” learning opportunity that allowed the whole group to review the four types of knowledge and to provide assessment examples for each other from their own classrooms. Not only were questions and confusions about content immediately answered, but the chart of examples they created was typed and given back to the group as a possible facilitation tool.
Phase Two: Changing Hats - Thinking Like a Facilitator On the second day of the program, participants worked in small groups to revisit the content and processes used during day one. First, they worked in small groups to identify remaining confusions and questions related to the content. Second, they were asked to begin to wear the hat of a facilitator and to generate questions related to process. After small groups articulated their questions, they labeled them as content or process, shared across groups and tackled answering the questions for themselves, thus providing feedback for each other. This was important because the feedback first came from the members of the small groups and validated the knowledge and experience of teaching they possessed already. When a group found a particularly difficult question or got stuck, the program leader clarified or opened the question to the entire group for discussion. For example, one group asked the following process question: “What do you do when a colleague raises a question that is off topic and that you know will use up a lot of the little time that you have?” Together the group identified strategies that would both recognize the importance of the question yet preserve the focus of the work and save time.
At the end of our “unpacking” session, I had experienced comfort (some of what I already knew was validated), a sense of personal growth (I had learned new content and vocabulary myself), discomfort (did I truly know this content well enough to teach it to someone else), and excitement (the journey had begun)…the dialogue and feedback encourages us to go forth despite our nerves…Cori Jackson, Teacher Leader - Park Early Childhood Center
Another learning segment in day two asked participants to use a checklist of quality attributes (see page 7 & 8) for professional development to assess the quality of the design of day one. This activity allowed participants to explore quality design and highlighted the very design qualities that would support their own design later that day. For example, one criteria, “providing opportunities for adult learners to personalize and directly apply content to their own experiences” would guide their design. Again, as participants worked with the list of criteria, insights and questions were captured and addressed through posting and discussion.
After the design of adult learning opportunities was explored, the participants began to think about the facilitation process. They viewed two to three videotaped examples of mini-sessions and used a checklist for quality facilitation (page 9 & 10) to observe and discuss the role, responsibilities and skills of good facilitators of adult learners. Here, the participants began to reflect on their own practice and set goals for improving their facilitation. The checklist they used during this learning opportunity was the very same one that the facilitator of the program would use later to give them feedback or that their peers would use.
At the end of day two, the program leader guided the group in planning for a mini-session for their colleagues. (A mini session was defined as a short professional development opportunity designed for a small group of educators.) Participants used planning guidelines (Page 11) to plan a 1-1.5 hour professional development experience for a group of their colleagues. In addition to collaborative design time, the program leader structured a peer review opportunity for participants. The peer review was an essential opportunity for feedback. Participants used a structured feedback process to validate and raise questions about each others’ work and to share additional ideas and suggestions for facilitation – all before they embarked on their first mini session. At the end of day two, participants left with a sketch of their mini session, feedback from others to support continued work and more confidence.
Phase Three: Giving It a Go… In between days two and three of the program, participants met with each other as needed to prepare further, rehearse and finally facilitate the mini session with their colleagues. Part of this work involved taking time to reflect. Participants were asked to write using specific prompts (Page 12) before and after their mini session and were required to mail or e-mail them to the program leader with the video or digital recording of their mini session.
These questions served several purposes. In addition to providing an opportunity for reflection, they provided additional contextual information for the leader viewing the tape and offered further direction for the feedback that the program leader would provide to participants. For example, one educator wrote, “I felt as though the same people kept responding and contributing. How can I get more quiet people to speak up without putting them on the spot?” The program leader was then able to watch for that in the video and provide more targeted feedback and suggestions for the future. One facilitator wrote the following about the experience of facilitating a session and then reflecting on it:
Through listening, I was able to grasp how they were thinking and processing what I was presenting. Our discussions allowed me to both validate and support their thinking. It almost felt like I was guiding their thinking process towards a more authentic interpretation. At times, when they were weeding through their thoughts, I was able to ask questions that fostered thinking and helped move both myself and the group towards my intended objective. Dawn Nichols, teacher, Patchogue-Medford Schools
This educator clearly discovered the power of using formative assessment and question to guide adults, provide feedback and to promote the self assessment that is a critical component of the learning process (Popham 2008, Fisher & Frey 2007).
Phase Four: Sharing and Discussing Feedback On day three, the program facilitator provided each individual with written feedback on the submitted video in the form of a completed checklist and notes, and the entire group got feedback on the themes, strengths and struggles that emerged from the collection of videotapes. In other words, the data from the videos was summarized so that the group could learn about their collective strengths and struggles. This was important group feedback that not only led to improvement but that also reinforced community commitment to success.
In one group, for example, the question of how to best introduce and use protocols for peer review emerged from the feedback provided to the collective. In response to this need, the whole group discussed and listed the advantages and disadvantages of the particular protocol used as well as possible adaptations. The chart below captures this thinking:
| Advantages of this protocol | Disadvantages of this protocol |
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The content and process struggles revealed in the videos and evidenced in the feedback were addressed over the course of day three so that the group could continue to deepen their understanding and sharpen their skills. This required the group to revisit effective strategies previously discussed and to collaboratively brainstorm strategies and approaches to meet challenges that arose in the context of working with their colleagues. Sometimes it involved the program leader to structure an additional experience or a textbased discussion around a need. Again, the embedded feedback supported and deepened continued learning, even outside the program.
| My development as a facilitator and the feedback I get carries over to my practice with student learners as well. Given the opportunity to use feedback to redo or readdress an art project, story illustration, or artist’s statement allows them a chance to improve quality and truly learn from process and from others. It is such a liberating feeling to know you have the opportunity to do so. This has truly changed my teaching philosophy. Debbie McGrath, art teacher, Patchogue Medford Schools |
Phase Five: Dear Reader… Day four of the program was designed to allow participants to pause, to reflect and to synthesize their thinking about their learning. Using guidelines that were introduced at the end of day three, participants worked individually to package a portfolio that evidenced their learning about both the content they studied and the process of facilitation. Their first portfolio entry was a “Dear Reader…” letter that asked participants to reflect on and describe their learning as a result of the program. They were invited to write to anyone who would allow them to be honest and find their own voice. Participants wrote to colleagues, the program leader, family members, students, past teachers/mentors, or supervisors and engaged in informal feedback and peer review of their written work throughout the day. These letters provided a more formal measure of the reflective practice outcome for the program and gave participants an opportunity for self-assessment, reflection and closure. One educator wrote in her portfolio:
| I have included participant reflections and the video feedback as the two artifacts to support my expertise in the facilitation of adult learning. Both show evidence of the conversations that allowed for impromptu responses…similar to the skills of improvisational actors. While some of the questions were predictable, others were not. I learned that facilitators need to be equipped and comfortable with a host of questions and responses… (Alicia Walsh, middle level teacher, Patchogue Medford Schools) |
Finally, the work and reflections of the educators who participated in these programs evidences the value of embedded and multiple opportunities for feedback from various perspectives. While the research on feedback and formative assessment clearly supports the importance of providing feedback to students and allowing for self and peer assessment in the course of learning, there may not be enough emphasis on the importance of feedback for adult learners. Educators who choose to move into leadership roles, both formal and informal, benefit from on-going and substantive feedback about the content of their work and the processes they use. In all cases, when feedback is focused, respectful and given when it can be used, it supports true professional growth. Adults need feedback too!
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References
Bransford, A. Brown, R. Cocking (Eds.) (2000). How people learn. Washington DC: National Academy Press. Brookhart, Susan M. (2008). How to give effective feedback to your students. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Fischer, Douglas & Frey, Nancy. (2007). Checking for understanding. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Popham, James W. (2008) Transformative assessment. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. |