Feedback and Assignment Design
One thing I always appreciate about working alongside colleagues that are from a different discipline is the objectivity that is inherent. When creating assignments, especially ones that are outside the norm and fall into this open education pedagogy, it is easy to fall down the rabbit hole and not see the entire process from beginning to end. AND especially with working on something so new.
Working alongside someone who you are “presenting” this idea to keeps you in check. Even from the moment of speaking it out loud, red flags went up for me that steps were unclear and not specific enough. In addition, someone who may or may not know about your subject-matter only has the assignment to go off of. If things are working, great. If something is unclear, maybe a solution or possible solution can be found together. The “need” of the other voice is a requirement (at least for my own process).
As a student myself, and for the longest time, I hatedddd getting feedback and constructive criticism. I think it all dates back to a terrible teacher I had in the 4th Grade 🙂 For so long, I would get defensive and not receptive to any kind of suggestion. Over the years, I have come to embrace it and find it essential and necessary. After all, as teachers, we want our students to succeed and finding ways of lifting them up and helping them make their work better, is the ultimate goal. I feel the same way about colleagues and how we work together to support.
One Comment
Laura Spinu
I fully agree with you, Tom, and my experience has been similar. My fear of getting feedback (especially publicly) also dates back to elementary school. I had a Romanian teacher who used to make fun of us, and so unfairly too. When she returned our quizzes, she would call us by name (from highest to lowest grade) and laugh at our mistakes. One time she put me in the spotlight for misspelling the German word “Leitmotiv” but that term was not in our textbook and when she dictated it to us, she never demonstrated the spelling. In retrospect, we were too young for that word anyway! She used to dictate to us these convoluted paragraphs from advanced literary theory texts that had nothing to do with our textbook and our grade level! This is just one of several examples – in the end I was terrified of ever having my work pointed to or discussed in class, even though many other teachers highly praised it! This goes on to show how just one negative person can undo the work of many well-meaning individuals or, in the words of a well-known proverb, “What a fool can spoil, ten wise men cannot repair.” In my entire teaching career, I tried very hard not to be that person, and to enthusiastically show my support and belief in our students’ ability and success. But when it comes to being in a group of peers, I’m still that person who is terrified of being singled out for feedback. Well, until now, that is! Like you, I have not only enjoyed but learned greatly from our small group, more specifically I have learned to listen to constructive criticism and to focus on my peers’ intention without suspecting that they are trying to make fun of me. This all starts with establishing a warm, friendly, and safe environment for people to engage in, and I believe Shawna did an exquisite job of it. More importantly, I am taking this with me twofold – on the one hand, as a teacher who will strive to create the same comfortable environment in my own classes, and on the other hand as a creator of assignments that focus on the learning process and the benefits to be derived from engaging with a homework, and definitely not on potential failure and its negative consequences. I aim to make my students see that ‘failure’ is just a poor word choice, that a better way to look at this is as an opportunity to learn about yourself and grow. Just one of the important lessons I’ve learned during our OPF Fellowship !