Category: Post 4

1. Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback to students and what Hattie recommends?

Yes, significant. Much of my instructing experience has included isolated rural Indigenous communities. There is some reference to ‘cultural’ differences in the Hattie excerpt. However, using the three engagement questions, sometimes the ‘goal’ for students I have worked with and for in the past is to just be present at the session. In many cases, so many barriers have been imposed upon students to attend opportunities for learning and expanding credentials. For example, in many northern communities (Indigenous or non-Indigenous) a large barrier is access to good and reliable childcare. These types of links and connections to ‘learning’ are potentially lost when ‘scientific’ and ‘statistical’ measures start permeating throughout education (e.g. links to ‘big data).

There is a place for the types of analysis that Hattie explores. However, there are often more humanized and day-to-day realities that also need to be incorporated into these types of discussions.

2. In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback that you provide for your students?

Maybe this will be considered somewhat contradictory, or oppositional thinking; however, I think the effectiveness of the feedback that I can provide to students will be greatly improved by seeking more feedback on my performance and methods of instruction. For example, long-time educator and research Stephen Brookfield advocates for a Critical Incident Questionnaire.

This asks some important questions of students and provides vital feedback to instructors/facilitators. This type of tool also facilitates opportunities for students to self-reflect on their own learning process. This, in many cases, can be an even more important ‘feedback’ process than receiving from an instructor.

Curiously, the etymology of feedback (Online Etymology Dictionary) suggests that ‘feedback’ as a process, such as “information about the results of a process” is suggested to not have been common until the 1950s. Prior to that it had to do with electronics.