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Giving Feedback that Supports Learning
By Skip Downing
In TODAY'S FEATURE ARTICLE, your intrepid editor
offers his favorite methods for giving students feedback that
they will more likely hear, understand, and act on. Whenever I
have provided feedback in this conscious and empathetic manner,
I have found that more of my students stick around (read
"retention") and learn in greater depth (read "academic
success"). (1084 Words)
Cheers, Skip
* * * * *
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative,
a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger." --Franklin P. Jones
"An artful critique focuses on what a person has done and can do
rather than reading a mark of character into a job poorly done."
--Daniel Goleman
* * * * *
I still remember the feedback I got on the first essay I wrote
in freshman English. I had worked on it for a full week:
writing, revising, rereading, rewriting. I wanted to wow my
professor with my creativity. I wanted him to read my essay and
break into song.
(Okay, so I was eighteen.)
If he did break into song, apparently it was a dirge. With red
ink, he circled a handful of spelling errors. (This, of course,
was before spell-check.) Atop the first page, he wrote one lone
and chilling sentence, which I now quote verbatim despite the
intervening two score and four years: "Young man, this is hardly
a good start on a college career." Like most first-year
students, I was at least as smart as a rat in a Skinner box, so
I quickly discerned what was important here.
I turned my energy to correct spelling. One of my roommates, it
turned out, was a human spell-checker and glad to help. After
that, I submitted hurriedly prepared, bland, pasty writing with
impeccible...er...impeccable spelling. I passed the course but,
in retrospect, wasted the semester. John Dewey was right that
the collateral learning is often more powerful than the lesson
the educator intends to teach.
Lo these many years later, here is one of my guiding beliefs as
an educator: Human beings are either protecting or growing, and,
for the most part, these two approaches are incompatible. While
protecting, we contract toward safety. While growing, we expand
toward learning. Therefore, to encourage learning in my students
(especially my struggling students), I need to create a learning
environment safe enough for them to choose the risks of growth
over the safety of protection.
In my experience (both as a student and instructor), few things
make learners feel less safe than judgment. By "judgment," I
mean an evaluation that spills over into a stated or implied
criticism of the person. A "judgment" oozes self-righteousness.
A "judgment" says, "You are 'less-than.'" The finger of judgment
waggles in the face of a grave and personal deficiency.
And here's what makes judgment even more complicated. Though I
may not intend a judgment, students may still perceive one.
Whether real or perceived, judgments wound all but the most
confident, and when wounded, many students replace learning with
protecting. Protecting often shows up as "fight or flight." In
higher education, we see "fight" when a defensive student snaps
an insult or files a groundless grievance. We see "flight" when
a student withdraws or evaporates for no apparent reason. Anyone
looking for a dissertation topic? How about a study exploring
the impact of judgment on attrition in higher education? I think
we'd be shocked to discover how much impact judgment has on
students jumping ship.
Here, then, are four strategies I have found helpful in
extracting judgment from evaluation and, thus, improving
students' ability to learn from and act on corrective feedback.
1) FIRST, FIND THE GOOD. As experts, we can easily spot
weaknesses in students' efforts, especially because what's
"wrong" often dwarfs what's "right." But when I consciously look
for something positive, I ALWAYS find it. So, first off,
identify something praiseworthy about a student's comment,
assignment, or test. Be specific and genuine.
For example, "I was intrigued by your
opening anecdote. It really grabbed me." (even though I am
totally confused by what follows) or "You worked the first three
steps of this problem beautifully. Bravo!" (even though
the student's ultimate answer is miles from correct).
2) OFFER CONCRETE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT. What could the
student do better or differently next time? Again, be specific:
"I think adding an example would go a long way towards helping
me understand what you mean in your second paragraph." Or,
"Please review pages 67-71 in our text book about multiplying
two negative numbers. Then take another look at step 4."
3) PROVIDE AN OVERALL POSITIVE COMMENT...AND
RAISE THE BAR. In summarizing your feedback, offer global
encouragement about the student's work: "I find a lot to like
about your project." Also offer encouragement about the
student's effort: "I can see your hard work is really starting
to pay off." Studies have shown the importance of helping
students realize that their effort, even more than innate and
immutable abilities, makes a huge contribution to academic
success.
Finally, advocate for an even greater level of
excellence. "I have high expectations for your next project, and
I very much look forward to seeing it."
4) USE "I STATEMENTS" WHEREVER POSSIBLE. This is a guideline I
endeavor to weave throughout the first three. "I statements" are
especially important when explaining reasons for suggesting a
particular improvement. For example, I could say, "Your second
paragraph is very confusing, and you should add an example." An
alternative that I think helps struggling students hear this
suggestion is: "I find myself confused by your second paragraph.
I think adding an example would go a long way towards helping me
understand what you mean." I know it's easier to use "I
statements" in most humanities and social science courses than
in disciplines like math and science where answers are more
likely "right" or "wrong."
Still, instructors in math and science can help
students by focusing feedback on the correct answer, not the
incorrect person: "The correct answer for this problem is 47%"
(not "Nope, you got it wrong."). If the difference here seems
subtle, imagine the words spoken with the waggling finger of
judgment pointing at you, and you might better comprehend the
inner experience of the struggling student.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow described well the inner battle
between safety and growth: "[W]e can consider the process of
healthy growth to be a never ending series of free choice
situations, confronting each individual at every point
throughout his life, in which he must choose between the
delights of safety and growth, dependence and independence,
regression and progression, immaturity and maturity.
Safety has both anxieties and delights; growth has both
anxieties and delights. We grow forward when the delights of
growth and anxieties of safety are greater than the anxieties of
growth and the delights of safety."
With effective feedback, we can help students minimize the
anxieties of safety and maximize the delights of intellectual
growth. Had my freshman English professor been a bit more
skilled at providing feedback, perhaps he would have conveyed to
me the importance of dressing my thoughts in correct spelling
AND encouraged me to continue growing as a writer, a student,
and a lifelong learner.
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