I Love Feedback… but not really.

A question I will often ask in an interview is ‘How do you feel about feedback?’ The response is usually an enthusiastic ‘Ooh, I love feedback, it helps me grow and it is so worthwhile’. Fast forward to me giving feedback to self-confessed lover of feedback and you can see them shift uncomfortably, or argue the point, or shut down or, in some cases, cry. Oh dear!

I wonder how we can give and accept feedback without this emotional response? It’\s hard because you want to learn, you want to grow but you also don’t want to be told you are doing a rubbish job - which essentially is what we hear when people give us feeedback.

Currently at the school where I work, we are trying to build a stronger culture of observations and feedback. It’s tricky. People are on edge and feel judged, even the best of teachers. I often think when I walk into classrooms ‘This is such a gift, if only you could see what an amazing teacher you are!’.

We started our observation and feedback rounds just with a detailed thank you. After all, positive feedback is still feedback right? This was the right way to go and you could see staff relaxing a little when we did multiple rounds of observation and feedback. What I found was that people would self-reflect on the positive feedback, choosing a little something here or there that they would like to tweak. If you gave feedback to a teacher saying you really liked how they used proximity attention cues whilst not breaking their instruction, they would build in more intentional movement into their lesson. It was like they had recognised ‘this is something that is working I want to improve this and refine it further.’

Our next round had specific things we were looking for but it was still positive. In small teams, we visited classrooms using the observation template and ticked what we could see and wrote some encouraging detailed observation at the bottom. This also worked because people could see what they were doing but also what they weren’t doing. They were able to set a goal to add in some of the aspects they were missing for the next round.

This term, our observations and feedback cycles will continue with the identification of specific pedagogical approaches we have been focusing on as a staff. Again, the positive reinforcement of ‘this was clear, that was excellent and I loved how you…’ not only builds the trust but has staff be able to self reflect further. There have been a number of staff who have said ‘I can’t believe you took all those notes just from a 5 min observation!’ or ‘I never even realised I was doing that, wow! Thank you for noticing’. What has also resulted in a cross school appreciation for everyone’s professionalism, craft and approach to their learners.

By coming from a place of appreciative inquiry, positive information and detailed observation we can provide accurate, focused and well received feedback. Staff are interested in reading each other’s feedback (we put the observation notes on a data wall) and have started visiting each other’s classroom outside of observation times to see how they ‘do’ a particular approach, strategy or technique.

Best news? No arguments, no crying and no blocking!

When seeking feedback, or perhaps before saying ‘I love feedback!’ consider how you want to receive feedback and how it will help you grow. The response to ‘how do you feel about feedback?’ might change from the usual ‘I love it’ to ‘it depends on how it is delivered and used.’ and then talk about specific approached such as asking for someone to observe you, identifying what IS working and leaving some space to identify what is an area for self-reflection and improvement. Asking the question ‘what would you like me to look for today and provide feedback on?’ rather than a cold call approach to picking holes in a 5 minute observation on a 30 minute lesson might also work. Offering a ‘2 stars and a wish’ or ‘I notice I wonder’ or (in our case) ‘I am going to reflect what I saw and what was working really well’ means people might feel less judged and more coached.

How do you approach feedback? Is it something you love… really?