Something to Try: Feedback for Change

How many of you ask for feedback from your students and colleagues on your teaching? It is a very revealing and daunting process. I am going to be brave and share with you some less than perfect feedback I have received as it has got me thinking.

At year 9 parents evening earlier in the term, a neurodiverse student explained that he was struggling with the instructions I was giving. Despite my focus on repeat, repeat, repeat, due to his slow processing needs, he was sometimes getting lost. This wonderfully honest discussion was like a lightbulb for me and we resolved that I would give the main class instructions and then pop over to chat it through again with him. In my last lesson with him we were printmaking in a busy, dynamic lesson. I saw him hang back waiting for me to go through the process with him 1:1, which I did. I felt a physical relief from him. Without that conversation I may have been lost in the pace of the lesson and not noticed.

This got me thinking about feedback and the space for my students to tell me how I am doing, teaching them. So I asked the rest of the year 9's in a Microsoft Forms. The form was about the curriculum and GCSE choices but also contained the question 'How can I improve my teaching?'. Almost all the answers were along the lines of 'its great, no need to improve' - phew. However, one student with SEND wrote 'there is a lot of pressuring people to finish by shouting loudly'. Now I can confidently share this with you because I know I am not a shouty teacher, nor one that rushes students; however, in my classroom that is how this student feels. He is sat right by where I give instructions to the whole class, so to him, my volume is shouting and because he works at a slower pace than the other students, he is feeling pressured by the pace I am setting. Another light bulb went off.

Despite knowing who my SEND students are, I am not sure I am actually thinking about their needs closely enough. Now, I am big believer that you cannot differentiate every lesson for every student; however, making sure that my neurodiverse students don't feel that I am shouting at them and pressuring them seems a pretty reasonable adaptation to make for every lesson.

From this feedback I will think much more closely about where I deliver my instructions from and I will check in more regularly with this student to reassure them about the pace and my expectations.

That student was so brave to write something so honest, in return I have been brave here and shared this, in the hope of prompting you to ask for feedback to better understand how your students see your lessons. This simple act may give you a window into their world in a way that impacts their enjoyment of your subject.

I will be asking more classes and then my colleagues for feedback. Watch this space.

Do you ask for feedback?

What do you do with that feedback?

Is there a danger to opening ourselves up to criticism?