A new angle I am actively pursuing this
year in my teaching is encouraging students to drive their own learning. One of
my first steps is a commitment to taking feedback from my students. Having
recently been involved in a number of research projects in which I had to
gather data on student views and experiences, I’ve been really awoken to the
importance of listening to students and trying to see things from their
perspective.
The days are long-gone in which students
were passive recipients of our wisdom and experience (ha!) and now the
understanding is that learning takes place best in an open forum which
emphasises partnerships, sharing and debate among students and teachers. Even
in the best planned and executed lessons there is always the potential for a
gap between what the teacher thinks is happening and what is
actually taking place in the minds of the students. I believe that listening to
my students more will help me to plan my next steps more carefully,
particularly with differentiation in mind. But perhaps more importantly, I feel
that it models humility and the reflective habits we wish for in
students.
So I've set myself a few guidelines which
may help me in using feedback effectively:
- Write questions carefully - think about
the information I really want from students.
- Share the feedback with students and
discuss ways I or we can act upon it.
- Take feedback regularly
throughout the course so that there is time to make changes.
- Use varied formats so the
students don't find it tedious.
- Take negative feedback positively!
This neat quote from author and spiritual
teacher, Ram Dass, is a good place to begin: "The quieter you become, the
more you can hear".
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