ratings

What kind of feedback do you give? Constructive or destructive?

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Providing someone with feedback is valuable. In our roles as educators, whether facilitator, leader, teacher, or a combination of all, we leave ourselves open to opinion. From time to time this feedback is shared constructively, points are collaboratively established to be worked through and targets are set. The outcome? Positive change. And then there are other times when feedback or criticism is destructive.

criticism“The difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism is the way in which comments are delivered. Although both forms are challenging your ideas, character, or ability, when someone is giving destructive criticism it can hurt your pride and have negative effects on your self-esteem and confidence. Destructive criticism is often just thoughtlessness by another person, but it can also be deliberately malicious and hurtful. Destructive criticism can, in some cases, lead to anger and/or aggression.” (Dealing With Criticism)

For those of you who have been on the receiving end of destructive criticism, I truly empathise. We stand in front of our peers or learners, delivering, teaching, or supporting with passion. From personal experience, I have been astounded by how hard some comments have hit me. It hurts! It can be completely unexpected and feels almost impossible to prepare for.

What troubles me most is the long-term damage that destructive criticism can cause. Whether motivated by a sense of helping, or, in rare cases, actively designed to cause turmoil, in the education sector it simply isn’t good enough. Our roles and much of our professional development relies heavily on the feedback of peers. Education remains an intriguing mystery at times as I watch amazing middle leaders deliver well-constructed feedback for their students, personalising comments, and finding deeper meaning, while the same is not done for their peers.

How could you frame feedback?

In 2004, Emily Heaphy and Marcial Losada conducted a study of the nature and ratio of effective feedback. Although their data has now been widely reviewed and challenged on a statistical level (not on a wider interpretation of impact level), the basic premise of their findings is well worth understanding. They found, “The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one).” (Zenger and Folkman 2013). Taking the meaning into account over the data as a fact, this leads us to believe that we perform better when the ratio of positive comments is much greater than negative. This in itself is not a revelation. A happy team who feel supported and trust their leadership will perform more effectively and cohesively than a team who feels the opposite — it’s human nature. However, seeing this ratio made me reflect on the feedback I had given to a peer when reading through their sabbatical report recently.

example of criticism

In no way am I suggesting my feedback here is perfect — far from it! Prior to this paragraph was a list of wider thinking questions that were designed to start deeper conversations, but upon rereading, I realised quickly that they could be seen as highly critical. After some rephrasing, but without losing the direction and with the addition of positivity to balance the challenge, I sent the feedback. It was well received and acted upon. I think the key here was to understand what it might feel like to be on the end of the email before pressing the send button. This is not always easy, but brings us back to the old proverb, ‘treat others as you would wish to be treated.’ It’s not perfect, but I don’t know anyone who would want to be on the end of destructive criticism!

When should you deliver feedback?

So, what if you’ve carefully phrased the criticism, balanced positive and negative elements, but made sure the meaning and direction has been maintained. When do you send it? Think carefully here. Have you ever received a challenging email late at night or over the weekend? It could be argued that we need a level of self-control and don’t need to check emails or messages in our personal time, but digital technology has changed things and we live in a predominantly ever-connected world. Switching off and demarcating non-message/email time is a whole different conversation. In this instance, imagine receiving something constructive over the weekend. It could go either way, right? Gently nagging at you throughout the weekend and distracting from time with whānau and friends. Or, it could be well received and not worry you until Monday morning. But dare we assume? I think, perhaps, the biggest question to ask here is: can it wait until the morning or Monday? If the answer is no, shouldn’t it to lead to asking, how the best way to share might be?

How should you deliver feedback?

To be effective, I believe you have to know the person on a personal level so that you know how they respond to different modes of communication and which they prefer. It’s important to know that one of your colleagues likes bad news or challenges to be shared face to face, whereas another is happy to receive it via Snapchat. For some, being able to hear someone’s tone on the telephone or read their expression and body language in person (or via video call with cameras on) is important. For others, being face to face with a colleague who is sharing criticism may be intimidating and they may feel uncomfortable outside of text-based communication. Neither is right or wrong, they are simply preferences. If we don’t ascertain what our colleague’s preference is, we run the risk of getting it wrong and potentially affecting them on a personal level.

How do we deal with criticism?

depressionIt’s not fair to assume that our reaction to every piece of criticism received will be the same. It is dependent on who the sender is, how it’s worded, and what the positive/negative ratio is.

“The key thing to remember is that whatever the circumstance is, don´t respond in anger as this will cause a scene and create bad feelings – and possibly a bad image of you.” (Dealing With Criticism).

Of course, there are generic things you can do to calm and deal with situations effectively, some of which can be applied to multiple situations:

Talk to someone

It is worth remembering that teaching and education rely heavily on collaboration and cooperation. Find someone you trust and share openly with them. It’s about finding perspective and understanding that an immediate reaction could be clouded by heightened emotion- we’re human!

Don’t press send

Write the email if you need to. Draft in a document, record it as a voice memo, do whatever you feel you need to do to get it out of your system, but do not press send. Everyone needs an outlet.

Focus on the positives

It can be hard to find the positives in a pile of negatives, but if you look hard, they’re often there. Combined with possibly talking with someone for a fresh set of eyes, hunt through for anything that resembles a comment that could be a compliment. If one simply cannot be found, stop reading. Put it down. Return to step one.

Respond (at an appropriate time)

The key here is appropriate. A response doesn’t mean a defence. It may be as simple as acknowledging the criticism and knowing when to cease the conversation. If the criticism is truly unjust and undeserved, mediation may be needed. Find an alternative perspective and have a comparison. Otherwise, let it go; the damage done from holding on to something you cannot change far outweighs anything else.

Find a different cup

A close colleague of mine, who recently supported me through my own challenge, shared how strange it was that we so often end up focusing on the negative. On a page of beautifully balanced constructive criticism, our eyes immediately search for the thing we know will upset us the most! It made me wonder how often we bank the comments that make us feel good. How do we keep the cup full in the background, so we know it’s there to drink from when we need it? There is nothing arrogant about storing positivity to improve a sense of self. After all, we have a first-aid kit in the house, why not have one for the mind?

In conclusion…

In closing, something I think we all need to remember (including me as I write this) is that we are our own harshest critics. Whether that stems from the words of others or a deeply reflective sense of self, it’s about what we do with the thinking and words we receive. Do we let them stoke the flames of a raging fire of insecurity? Or, are we able to let them pass by us like a cool breeze? The internationally renowned singer Adele once said, “I have insecurities of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who points them out.”

 

References
(n.d.). Dealing with Criticism | SkillsYouNeed. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/dealing-with-criticism.html
Zenger, J and Folkman, J.
(2013, March 15). The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio — Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from https://hbr.org/2013/03/the-ideal-praise-to-criticism

Image credits
Criticism, Write a Review, Review from Pixabay CC0
Depression, Voices, Self Criticism from Pixabay  CC0

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level up

Level up your inclusive practice

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level up
Here’s a loose attempt to apply a gaming analogy to valuing and planning for diversity in your learning community.

Level 1 star: Planning for the predictable

Imagine this scenario:

  • You have been asked at short notice to prepare lunch for 20 people
  • You don’t have an opportunity to find out about preferences/allergies
  • You are directed to go to the local supermarket (with the work credit card) to “Get something for lunch”.

Chances are you wouldn’t buy $150 of mince and cheese pies. Instead, you would probably run this little narrative in your head, “Hmm, I bet someone is vegetarian, maybe gluten-free or even dairy free, better get a range of stuff then people can choose what they want”.

That’s planning for the predictable.

We expect people to have different preferences and needs, so we plan for them. We want everyone to eat, to feel welcome. It’s about courtesy. We definitely don’t want anyone to feel excluded.

In any teaching context, the above scenario translates pretty well. As teachers or facilitators, we find ourselves in situations where we have to prepare an environment for learners we don’t know personally.

What guides planning in this context? What might be the predictable needs or preferences in a learning environment? How do you demonstrate courtesy or practise manaakitanga?

Maybe you think about:

  • The people: who they could be, what they may bring, what may be important for them
  • The tikanga you will use
  • Potential barriers hidden in the design of the environment or activities that could hinder participation and learning
  • Options and supports that can be offered to everyone

Summary: Level one is about expecting, valuing, and planning for that diversity from the outset.

Level 2 starstar: Valuing the personal

Scenario two: Kai for a friend’s birthday.
If I invite a friend over for her birthday and I know she loves strawberries, I’ll probably offer strawberries as an option for dessert. It’s a small ordinary thing: something most of us do.

When I am facilitating, and I know that there are a bunch of people in the room who love walking in the mountains, I will try to include analogies and images related to mountains, big vistas, and wild remote places in my storytelling. Again, it’s a small act, motivated by an intention to build connection and support engagement.

Again, the practice connects easily to the classroom:

  • Reflecting knowledge of learners and their histories/experiences/context in the learning design
  • Offering everyone options and supports inspired by the needs, preferences or interests of individual learners

Summary: Level 2 is really about getting to know people personally and using that knowledge to refine the learning design.

Level 3 starstarstar: Getting strategic

Adopting Level 1 and 2 practices will probably improve the usefulness of most learning environments. The downside? These approaches can be a bit random, e.g., when learners move between classes they can experience very different levels of access, options, and support.

So, what can help us establish:

  • shared foundational approaches to ensure learners get a more consistent deal as they move from class to class, course to course, school to school?
  • common language to support our practice and conversations with students, whānau, and each other?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is the approach I wholeheartedly recommend schools, kura, and learning organisations investigate. Although UDL originates in the US, we are learning to use it with integrity here in Aotearoa.

UDL is:

  • a strategic approach to inclusive practice
  • endorsed by the Ministry of Education
  • an explicit component of the revised approach to PB4L school-wide approach
  • provides a framework for effective use of technologies
  • applicable to all aspects of education (systems and processes, professional learning design, community partnerships, the design of physical environments, assessment practice, activity and event planning…).

Many of the practices recommended in the UDL framework are already familiar, so we’re not starting from scratch.

The value the UDL framework brings is it helps us:

  • notice aspects of our practice that we hadn’t considered before
  • identify and remove barriers to learning hidden in the way we routinely do things
  • move away from random well-intentioned acts of inclusion
  • supports us to engage actively with diversity and variability
  • guides deliberate coherent innovation in inclusive design.

Summary: Level 3 is about taking a strategic transparent approach to planning for diversity.

Rate your workplace

So, which level best represents your organisation starstarstar?

  • What’s your view and what’s your evidence?
  • What would the students say?

Getting some support to level up

If you are keen to find out more about inclusive practices and Universal Design for Learning:

Image credits
Level-up image: By Diomedes17 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51580060¶

Stars: By CFCF – Own work on Wikimedia, CC0,

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I am still learning

Finding the joy in learning. Harnessing the power of ‘What if…’

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I am still learningI cannot believe that I have just spent the last four hours learning a new skill, so engrossed that I was totally oblivious to the passage of time. My goal was to become familiar with a new (for me) digital tool to share with teachers. I saw its potential to increase the engagement of students in their learning, allowing them to easily demonstrate their learning, to deepen their learning in a wide range of curriculum areas and key competencies. As an extra bonus, the end product looked cool to boot! I had spent most of the day fully focussed, going off on tangents to add to my kete of skills, exploring, being curious, failing, succeeding, failing again, pushing myself to go beyond just a basic level of competency by asking myself, “What if I…”, “How can I…”, “Where can I find more out about…”. I ended up with a skill set I could apply in my role as a facilitator AND with a product that I had created of which I was very proud. I would be able to share my creation and my learning on a wider global platform as well as share it with others as part of my facilitator practices (Learn, Create, Share1).

I can almost hear you saying, “nice story, but what has this got to do with anything?” It led on to my wondering, what if more of the learning within schools could be like this? What would need to change?

I know many schools are moving towards, or already include this style of learning with extended periods of time via project/problem-based learning, genius hour, inquiry learning, etc., but what if all students at all levels could feel as engaged and as excited about their learning as I did about mine today? Today, I experienced being lost in the joy of learning that is too frequently denied many of our students.

The OECD report on The Nature of Learning2 (2010) may have come out a while ago, but we still need to be cognisant of its seven principles of learning (pg 6-7). On reflection, many of those principles applied to me today:

  1. Learners at the centre — I was motivated to construct my own learning pathways and was actively exploring as I had a clear and authentic purpose for this learning.
  2. The social nature of learning — I may not have been working collaboratively with others at the time, but my purpose was to share the outcomes of my learning with others so that they were then empowered to create learning opportunities for their students, in a tuakana/teina way.
  3. Emotions are integral to learning — throughout my learning I developed a sense of achievement, encouraging me to explore further via a feedback loop of failure and success, to be proud of my final product. I became increasingly motivated to be curious and to persevere.
  4. Recognising individual differences — I was able to direct and manage my own learning based on my learning needs, abilities, and motivation. I had the freedom along with the support to explore, and I had options to refer to when I encountered difficulties.
  5. Stretching all students — not being satisfied with a basic level of mastery and asking, “how can I make this better?” pushed me to stretch my skills as did the final expectation of having to share my learning with an audience.
  6. Assessment for learning — I was clear on the ‘why’ of this learning. Achieving mastery as various stages provided formative feedback — I can do this, so what can I do next? Summative assessment came when I was successfully able to teach others, who were then able to teach their students, who in turn … (a cascade effect of learning/teaching).
  7. Building horizontal connections — learning for an authentic purpose allowed others to make connections to a range of learning areas, especially when I asked them, “how can this tool be used to support the pedagogy and learning within your context?”

We often forget that, as a teacher, we should also be a learner, and it is important to remember that the principles of how we all learn, which are condensed within the OECD report The Nature of Learning, apply to all teachers/kaiāko as much as it does to our ākonga.

“Understanding the fundamentals of how we learn allows us to address more effectively the conditions in which successful learning can occur.” (OECD, 2010, p3)

My challenge to you, then, is to find ways that you can (re)discover the joy of learning for yourself and for your learners and to not underestimate the power of “What if?”

References

 

Image Credits
Michelangelo quote: J. Young, CC0, adapted from image by Marcus53 on Pixabay under CC0.

1 “Learn, create, share — Manaiakalani.” http://www.manaiakalani.org/our-story/learn-create-share

2 “The Nature of Learning – OECD.org.” http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/50300814.pdf.

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student engagement

Engagement – visibility = mischief

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visibility is important

Curiosity is a natural part of learning and is especially evident in our young learners. This natural drive to know about the surrounding world is a brilliant aptitude that supports us as educators when developing teaching and learning programmes.

A curious child can be engaged for hours on end in their own world of knowledge curation. However, in an educational setting, there has to be some caution to ensure the learner’s engagement is the learning outcome we desire. Often, quiet engagement can just mean the learner is not in “the right place at the right time” and is actually up to mischief.

When I was growing up, we were often up to mischief in the class. We would be completely engaged, silent (apart from the odd quiet giggle) at the back of the room, under a desk, or tucked in a corner. This often involved looking through the Encyclopaedia Britannica or National Geographic to broaden our horizons, or making miniguns with our biro pens’ internal compartments, or creating paper spitballs to fire out of felt pen pipes behind our reading books.

However, these opportunities were few and far between, as I remember all of my teachers had an uncanny knack for identifying when my engagement in an activity was actually mischief in the making or not. It was like the teachers all had eyes in the back of their head and could read my and my friend’s thoughts before we even had formulated them.

The classrooms in which I was a student were always arranged so the visibility of the space, learners, and equipment was achieved by the teacher. I also think, looking back, that I was seated according to my potential for mischief: usually by a sensible student.

Learning in classrooms is now supported by not only the traditional tools and strategies but we are also privileged to have technology supporting and, in some cases, turbocharging the learning environment.

The opportunities for learners to be engaged is much greater due to the much freer access to knowledge and the ways technology capture our learners’ attention. Gone are the encyclopaedias and National Geographics — replaced with Google, Bing, Kiddle, etc. Gone, in many cases, are the computer labs in schools — replaced with personal mobile devices like the Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

To protect ourselves as educators and ensure the wellbeing of one another in the long term, we need greater visibility and understanding of what our learners are doing in the time they spend with us. Being able to avoid situations that put us offside with parents, for example, bullying, issues around the amount of screen time, viewing of inappropriate material, can be achieved easily.

There are a number of strategies and systems to support visibility and allow us a greater understanding of what our learners are doing in our classrooms, involving time-proven and digitally-enhanced methods. These include:

  • Roving and roaming — you still cannot beat the teacher moving out from a desk or teaching space to wander around the class and interacting directly with students.
  • The look — another great tool in the teacher’s repertoire — can quickly give a teacher insight into the thoughts of the student and be followed up with a visit if required.
  • Questioning and feedback — asking questions or requiring intermittent feedback to ensure the student knows that at any moment you may require them to give feedback on their progress on a task.
  • Creating a basic language in the class — for example, “are you in the right place at the right time for your learning?”
  • Setting your classroom up with the learners — so that there is a good understanding of the behaviours and expectations are of each space. This empowers your students to monitor and support students to use devices ethically and safely in the spaces. Check out the example from Rimu’s Learning Space at Yaldhurst Model School.
  • A really engaging teaching program — with lots of opportunities for creativity to support learners engaging in the curriculum. For example:
    • Testing whether your programme is engaging could involve asking your students by conferencing or getting them to complete a simple survey.
    • Stopping and observing your class for a set amount of time — how many are truly engaged in stimulating, progress-enhancing learning? Ask yourself: How do you know? Rinse and repeat daily/weekly.
    • Using a tripod or something to lean a phone or tablet onto and focus the device onto an individual or group of learners and use time-lapse photography to capture their engagement.
  • Ensuring there are tools and systems in place to ensure visibility of learner’s time on technology — using tools such as:
    • N4L filters
    • using a student internet management solution
    • or Hapara Teacher Dashboard which increases visibility for teachers of students on the Google or Office 365 platform
    • or Apple Classroom for iPad visibility
  • Programmes of teaching to support the use of technology in classrooms — such as:
  • Using a tool like Videonot.es when using videos in your teaching program — to analyse the video and make the learning from the video visible.

Our learners can be engaged in their learning very easily through great creative tools both analogue and digital. They also have numerous ways to show their understanding of learning and many great platforms to share their learning within and outside of the four walls of the classroom.

When reflecting on engagement in your own schools and classes, are students set up to be:

  • merely engaged in an activity to keep them out of mischief?
  • cognitively engaged in learning that promotes shifts in understanding?
  • visible both in the physical and digital world?

At the end of a session, are you able to see evidence of what learning has occurred?

Comments:

Please share your own strategies you use in your school! Add them to the comments below and share for the benefit of others.

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welcome

How welcoming are your school environments?

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cathal-mac-an-bheatha-223618-unsplashHave you ever walked through your school and asked yourself, “Who would feel welcome and comfortable here?”

I am sure we have all walked into a space where we immediately felt comfortable and, conversely, have been in spaces that do not feel welcoming or comfortable. What is it about those spaces that engender those feelings?

A learning space will work well for everyone only if it is designed to do so. Design a plan from the outset that includes all students, particularly those experiencing barriers to learning. —TKI: Inclusive Education Guides for Schools

For New Zealand schools, the partnership outlined in the Treaty of Waitangi is a primary driver in the design of learning environments. In a recent CORE Breakfast, Dr Ann Milne (NZ educator and researcher) noted that, for Māori, our classrooms are often “white spaces” created by the absence of te ao Māori in the spaces and in teaching, learning and school-wide practice.

This absence of te ao Māori in New Zealand classrooms can create feelings of discomfort or invisibility.

While the Treaty partnership provides us with a primary driver for looking at learning spaces, a number of other hidden barriers may also exist.

Using other lenses to review your spaces

Recently, I worked with a school to have a critical look at their spaces and identify how welcoming and comfortable they might feel. To support this work, we used the six headings outlined in the Inclusive Education Guide – Designing and configuring flexible learning spaces to support the full participation and engagement of all students.

Each staff member delved into the research and information provided under one of the headings in the guide (see image below).

tki inclusive education resources
Six lenses outlined in the Inclusive Education Guide – Designing and configuring flexible learning spaces to support the full participation and engagement of all students.

We then walked around the school viewing it through the chosen lens or lenses. The conversations started during this walkaround were rich and focused on some of the hidden barriers that can affect student access, engagement, and wellbeing. We talked about:

  • Sensory overload — we looked at visuals and noticed some spaces were full of colourful artwork and had conversations about how much is too much for sensory overload.
  • Access — we talked about things such as:
    • mobility around classroom areas for students with vision impairment
    • creating safe quiet zones in classes
    • gender-neutral toilets in primary school contexts.
  • Emotions and belonging — when we talked about the predominantly pastel colours in some spaces and how that might make various learners feel.

More importantly, this was not just talk. Staff made immediate changes to their learning environments based on what they noticed, and are considering and researching more options in the longer term.

Seeking diverse perspectives

I note a caveat for this post — taking a lens is not the same as living it. Nothing can replace working with a range of people with diverse perspectives when reviewing learning spaces. When we design spaces, we can collaborate from the outset to ensure that we design for all.

When we review established spaces, we can ask members of our learning community (students, whānau, and staff) which spaces they like being in and which feel less welcoming.

We can also use data such as who comes into the school and who does not to inform us. This type of data can provide a powerful starting point to help us ask the right questions and start the right conversations.

Deliberate design for inclusion

I invite you to use the rich resource that is our Inclusive Education website to have another look at your school environments. The Inclusive Education website is designed in New Zealand for New Zealand educators with practical strategies, suggestions, and resources to support the diverse needs of all learners.

If you are keen to find out more about inclusive practices and Universal Design for Learning:

 

Image credits:

Suggestions and resources image is from the TKI Inclusive Education Guide website

Feature image: Welcome Photo by Cathal Mac an Bheatha on Unsplash

 

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