Reflection on giving and receiving feedback...

Giving and receiving feedback can be very challenging and difficult. Yesterday my tutor gave a lecture on feed backing. she mentioned how important giving and receiving feedback is.  A critical aspect of developing my skills as a competent teacher involves learning how to give and receive feedback. As a trainee teacher, giving and receiving feedback is a big part of my practice as  from time to time I will need to give and receive constructive feedback When my tutor asked us to reflect on our personal experience of giving and receiving feedback, it really got me thinking. looking at my own experience, feedback, when positive is often easier to give  than negative feedback. I really do struggle giving negative feedback because I don't know how the person receiving will react. Highlighting the negative is always rough on both sides. However my tutor mentioned something that really helped and I suddenly felt that I have found the solution to my problem. She said, whenever giving feedback, whether is verbal or written, try to think to think of something positive. Feedback should always include:

 

• Medals: This gives the information of what the learner has done well
• Mission: This provides the information on what the learner needs to improve correct or work on
• Goals: This includes clear goals or targets

 

Being in my placement I have been involved in marking assignments and giving written and verbal feedback. I must admit, it is not an easy task, because I have to really think about the appropriate words to write because people tend to feel hurt when receiving negative feedback. However most of the time learners have been really, good and I haven't been in a position where I had to give very negative feedback. Therefore so far it has been good, because my learners have bee able to accept the feedback positively.

 

as well as giving feedback, I have also been receiving feedback from my tutors at college, my mentor, peer students and  the learners I teach. For example I was observed by both my personal tutor and my mentor, after the observation I received some really positive and constructive feedback from both of them. The feedback I got, helped me to plan my action points which I am sure will help me improve my teaching practice.

 

Giving and receiving feedback can be difficult at times however the experience is extremely beneficial whether it be that I am giving or receiving.  I have really appreciated the opportunity to partake in this as it has proven to be a powerful learning experience, albeit one that I would have avoided under normal circumstances. Receiving feedback is wonderful because it usually contain ideas that I hadn't thought about.

 

Therefore to improve my skills on giving feedback I ma going to try and include the three things recommended for effective feedback, medals, mission and goals!

 

Emma x