Go to any of the major educational publishers’ websites and enter “feedback” into the search bar.
You will likely get dozens or even hundreds of books and other resources about feedback. It’s a popular topic to promote as a tool for instructional improvement. There is certainly evidence to support its inclusion as a focus for professional study and application.
Yet for all the attention on feedback, it never seems to live up to the hype.
In fact, I believe feedback by itself is overrated.
Not to say feedback is an ineffective practice; it just isn’t the comprehensive solution to school improvement that it sometimes gets sold as in our profession.
For the sake of clarity, feedback in the context of education has been defined as “information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal” (Wiggins, 2012).
But these clean definitions don’t seem to translate well to our realities. For example, I remember “giving” feedback (as if it were a gift) to a teacher in my first year in one school. The teacher had organized the classroom library with little student involvement. I first asked if I could offer a suggestion, and then I demonstrated how they could set aside a pile of books in one center for the kids to co-organize around a theme or topic of their choice.
Instead of appreciating my input, the teacher became upset and proclaimed, “You never notice what I’m doing well.”
I walked away from that experience confused.
- As a faculty, we had devoted time to learning how to co-organize classroom libraries.
- I was accurate in my perception of the situation.
- My idea was useful; I had observed other teachers use it with success.
What did I do wrong? I wondered later on.
What I eventually realized is that it wasn’t the feedback itself; the problem was that I had not invested enough in developing a relationship with the teacher before communicating it.
Instead of focusing right away on feedback, start developing positive, trusting relationships with teachers.
A first step in this process is to focus on learning more about the person, then the practice.
That happens through engaged listening and constructive conversations. Everyday interactions in life are typically a two-way street; both parties exchange information and learn about each other. Why can’t our discussions with faculty resemble this experience? The skills we already have in other contexts are the same ones we can apply to professional dialogue.
Here are three tips to get started with developing positive, trusting relationships with colleagues.
Tip 1: Get to know one another. As Regie Routman wisely notes, “personal trust precedes professional trust” (2014). Take time to have brief, informal chats with teachers about what they do outside of school, and their personal interests. Also share about your own life. Disclosing personal information conveys trust in others, which leads to safer environments for taking risks.
Tip 2: Be open about your own shortcomings. Too often leaders are intimidated about getting into classrooms with the intent of trying to improve instruction. Maybe they think they don’t know enough about literacy. Maybe it’s difficult to turn off the bias toward giving feedback. Maybe they feel unwelcome. Whatever the reason, we can humble ourselves by being open about the challenges we face in our work.
If I were to go back in time to my previous example, I might share with the teacher how I used to keep a pristine classroom library as a teacher, until I realized that my students weren’t checking out a lot of books. When we are vulnerable, we normalize mistake making.
Tip 3: Celebrate often. In their work around Cognitive Coaching, Art Costa and Bob Garmston found that for more constructive feedback to be heard and acted upon, those in a coaching or leadership role should first offer at least six affirming, positive observations about a teacher’s practice (2016). These affirmations can happen over multiple classroom visits. Once teachers know we hold a primary intention of supporting them, they are more likely to be honest about the challenges they face and consider new approaches within their practice.
Try this: Select a teacher with whom you have a trusting relationship and offer affirmations about their practice.
- Visit their classroom for at least 15 minutes.
- Take notes on what you notice about the teachers’ instruction and environment.
- Think about how their planning and responses may have impacted student learning.
- Share your findings publicly and celebrate the students along with the teacher.
None of these tips are 100 percent guaranteed to lead to accelerating instructional improvement.
However, I am confident that by first developing a positive and trusting relationship, feedback will support teacher development as intended.
