Feedback that leads to change in teacher practice

SLP National HuiFebruary 25, 2011

Outline

• An introduction to feedback• What feedback teachers remember and act on • Key features in unpacking teachers’ theories of practice • Activity in which we practise giving feedback that

unpacks teachers’ theories of practice

Learning Intention

To be able to give feedback that changes teacher practice

Definition of feedback

• information provided by an agent (e.g. teacher, peer, book, parent, self, experience) regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding (Hattie and Timperley, 2007)

Effective feedback addresses 3 main questions

The aim is to reduce the gap between current and desired performance

• Where am I going? (What is the goal?)• How am I going? (What progress is being made towards

the goal?)• Where to next? (What activities need to be undertaken

to make better progress? (Hattie and Timperley, 2007)

Some interesting feedback from teachers

• Some teachers want a clear focus for the observation and feedback

• Some teachers want positive as well as constructive feedback

• Some teachers want written notes from the observation that they can reflect before the feedback session

• Some teachers say the post-observation feedback should be close in time to the observation

Coaches are often tentative when making suggestions

• Just throwing that in as a thought …• I just wondered ...• Might have been a good idea perhaps ...• Probably the one thing you didn’t do so well was …• Something you might want to think about …BUT• Teachers value the post-observation feedback and want

direction from it

What feedback do teachers remember?

• Beginning teachers remember less feedback and the feedback they do remember is about minor aspects

• Generally more experienced teachers remember more and what they remember is deep learning

• Teachers remember more feedback when only a few points are focused on in-depth

• Where the feedback is the main focus of the discussion, teachers remember more.

What feedback leads to a change in teacher practice?

The teachers who remember and act on the feedback given can articulate their theories of practice. They can discuss how their theories of practice are consistent with the coach’s. They engage in pedagogical discussions with the coach. They reflect on their lesson and come to the same conclusions as the coach.

Teachers’ theories of practice

• Teachers’ theories of practice “comprise the implicit beliefs, assumptions, values, knowledge and emotions that individual educators bring to their practice”. (Ki te Aoturoa, 2008, p. 106)

• “If you have an idea why you’re teaching, you can hold everything up to that. It’s your touchstone. You won’t allow things that go against that” (a student teacher, Duffy, 2002)

Difficulty of unpacking teachers’ theories of practice

• Teachers (like other professionals) often draw on tacit knowledge based on experience. Some teachers do not understand their own theories of practice, yet these beliefs are powerful drivers in their decision making.

• When interviewed about the decisions they make in the classroom, experienced teachers were unable to articulate their thinking about the decisions (Brown & McIntyre, 1993)

How to surface theories of practice

• Probing (seeking information)• Clarifying (checking understanding - details)• Summarising (checking understanding- big

picture)• Challenging (confronting differences)

Probing

• Seeking information

• “Why do you believe it’s important for students to critique one another’s work?”

Clarifying

• Checking understanding - details

• T: “ …on the whole they’re a very sensible class…”C: “At this point could you clarify what ‘sensible’ looks like in your classroom?”

Summarising

• Checking understanding - big picture• “So you’re saying that just taking a step back

from those boys worked well because they then got on with their work?”

Challenging

• Confronting differences

• “Let’s discuss your belief that an inquiry approach leads to poor behaviour in students. If there were no behaviour issues would you be comfortable using an inquiry approach?”

A teacher’s comments

• Initially the coach sort of jumped into things I could do differently without so much of that listening to me.

• (Now) there was a lot of room for me to say what I thought to him about the lesson, which I found really helpful.

• Because as teachers often we’re really busy and things happen in the lesson and sort of in our heads we’re thinking “Oh you know that could have been good” or “I could have done that differently.” Quite often we don’t have the space to sit down and write it down or talk about it with somebody. So to have that space was really good. It was a chance to verbalise and work through stuff myself in terms of how I thought about how the lesson went.

Activity

1. Read the observation notes.2. Watch the video and note aspects of

the feedback you would like to discuss.