Why you should turn to your students for feedback

By Rachel Arnold, Lecturer in English and Teaching, and Learning Coach at Solihull College & University Centre

We’ve all been there when a lesson observation or learning walk doesn’t quite go according to plan – and it’s worse when it’s due to events that never normally happen in your classroom.

It can be a frustrating experience, especially when the ‘unobserved’ lessons go so much better. A recent conversation with a colleague caused me to reflect on how we perceive and react to lesson observations as practitioners in FE. This colleague said that “even though the purpose of a learning walk is not to prove you’re a good teacher, it is hard to not question yourself afterwards whether you have done just that.”

Learning walks are a valuable tool for both teachers and an organisation, but if the emphasis is not on enabling teachers to reflect on their own practice and develop, experiment and research accordingly then we are missing a vital learning opportunity. Despite the value of learning walks by colleagues, they are only ever a snapshot of the multitude of moments of classroom engagement and learning. If we only reflect on our practice during those few times in the year, then we are inhibiting our ability to develop as practitioners.

So how do we go about intentional, regular reflection throughout the year? I think we should focus more on using the audience that doesn’t pop in for 10 mins, but who acts as the one constant feature of the classroom: the learners.

Organisational psychologist, Adam Grant, writes and talks about the importance of seeking feedback from the right place. He explores the dangers of seeking feedback from the two most likely sources: critics and cheerleaders.

Cheerleaders will usually tell us what we want to hear, and praise performance no matter what. Critics may not have our best interests at heart and therefore tend to scrutinise weaknesses in an unhelpful way. Neither critics or cheerleaders can help us to grow or develop.

Instead, Grant suggests we need coaches who can mentor us and be honest enough to give the advice that we need, rather than the feedback we want to hear. So, while a senior leader or advanced practitioner may be able to offer some valuable insights, we actually have the greatest underutilised coaching resource sitting in our classrooms every day: our learners. We should allow the learners to become our coaches.

Research shows that higher levels of trust in an organisation can result in up to 50% more productivity and better results. I don’t think there’s any teacher in FE who wouldn’t want a more productive classroom, leading to better outcomes for our learners. We can foster this trust in our classroom when we include students in our reflective processes. By inviting their feedback and advice consistently we are showing that we trust them, that they are important, and they are an integral part of the ongoing dialogue of improving practice.

We shouldn't only ask for feedback when we’re confident it will be positive. That might mean asking for feedback when everything feels like it’s going wrong. I recently put this into practice during an afternoon lesson which was not going the way I wanted. In the middle of the lesson, I stopped what we were doing and we sat in a circle and reflected together. We discussed what we each wanted to achieve during the lesson, what was currently preventing us from achieving this and what I could do as the teacher to help them. They all shared something; they all gave feedback.

Most of the learners were not cheerleaders during this discussion, they didn’t tell me I was doing anything perfectly. Yet, because of the trust we had established they also weren’t critics either. They listened, they shared, they advised, and we reflected and developed together. My learners became my coaches.

We need to involve our learners in our reflective processes so that they know they are just as much a part of the development process for us as practitioners. We need to move away from the mindset of observation and learning walks as a tool to prove and instead use it as a tool to develop. We invite learners to learn and progress every lesson from their starting points. When we show that we are doing the same as practitioners, and model this process for them then the reflective process can become a collaborative pursuit. We aren’t in the classroom to prove we are good teachers, but to show our learners and ourselves that we constantly strive to improve.

The views expressed in Think Further publications do not necessarily reflect those of AoC or NCFE.