Smart Feedback, Pt. 2: The Three Questions
Takeaway:
Mindfully asking the three questions that drive feedback in the classroom can grow the both skill and knowledge of our students. While this ability is very learnable for our teachers, it is essential that teachers ask these questions of themselves when instructing and providing feedback to their students.
Guiding Questions:
Who are the three questions designed for?
At what stage must teachers ask these questions to their students?
How do classroom goals and personal goals relate to the three questions?
What is the real goal of asking the three questions?
Summary:
In the previous post, we saw how important feedback is in promoting student learning and achievement. Feedback was defined as imparting information about a student’s performance or understanding in regard to the class goals. This post will focus on the three questions that must be answered when providing student feedback.
These questions are designed for both the student and the teacher to answer about how the student is performing regarding the class goals and where they will be going next. The main idea is that teachers are consciously providing feedback to allow them to guide the student in constructing their knowledge from the current lesson in preparation for the next.
Where Am I Going?
Establishing classroom goals that relate to learning objectives, skill acquisition, or student attitudes is normative in most settings, and is essential. This form of communication clarifies expectations on what the student will be learning and doing. Traditional feedback on these goals can be expressed as grades, comparisons, passing or completing an assignment, or comments such as “well done.” However, smart feedback should aim to accomplish both informing the student on their current goals and provide support for the student to set new goals as their goals are attained. In other words, teachers need to use feedback to close the gap between student performance and knowledge towards the goals of the class.
A limitation to feedback to this question is that the class goals need to be clearly and well defined. Failing to do so can prevent students from reaching the intended class goals which can cause a lack of motivation or engagement in the student. A second issue can arise when the feedback that is provided is not directed towards completing a class goal. This does not help the student close the gap between where they are and where they going.
The best way forward in answering this question lies in the students creating shared goals. When this occurs, students are more receptive to feedback and more likely to ask for it. Doing so requires that the classroom setting is conducive for such goal setting.
How Am I Going?
Not to be confused with “How Am I Doing?” this question focuses on the process of moving forward, not necessarily about the present status of a student. Oddly enough, feedback about a student’s current performance or understanding is actually a reflective question upon their past. Asking this question is to shift the focus from a student’s current process in accomplishing the class goals and allows the feedback giver to modify the methods of attaining the goals.
Tests and assessments are commonly given as a way to answer this question. However, these are but snapshots of a student’s performance and cannot always provide enough information to really understand how well a student’s process is working. The feedback to this question needs to focus more on behaviors and attitudes while being measured by performance and knowledge, as the former functions as the vehicle that drive the latter.
Where to Next?
It is easy to see that in many classrooms there exists a loop. The teacher instructs, students complete tasks, an assessment is given, then the teacher instructs again. The purpose of this loop is to keep the students learning and moving forward while they are attempting to attain one goal and move on to the next. What is missing, though, is a brilliant opportunity for the student and teacher to answer this section’s question, “Where to Next?”
This question is not solely for the purpose of looking forward to the next classroom goal, but something much deeper and possibly more important. “Where to Next?” is really about enrichment. A student or the teacher has an opportunity once the student attains a goal to attempt a novel approach at mastering the same goal. In fact, if a student is able to do this with some guidance and a strong amount of autonomy, a teacher has just helped to create an opportunity for much deeper understanding. And this, after all, must be an underlying goal that teachers hold for all students.
In all, answering the three feedback questions should help students close the gap between their current status and where they ought to be. Moving students from where they are at the moment in attaining the goals, then on to focusing on how their process is working, and finally to varying levels of autonomy for deeper learning is what feedback is all about. Mastering and applying such feedback, however, can be quite challenging, especially if not done mindfully.
The next post will focus on the four levels of feedback. Three of these levels are essential for student learning and growth, while one can actually be harmful. Knowing which level to use and when is essential for using feedback to its maximum benefits.
Leadership Thoughts:
It is common that schools ask teachers to set annual growth goals, and follow up can sometimes be minimal from leadership. By leaders meeting with their staff quarterly or semesterly to ask these three feedback-driven questions, we can do a better job of providing both encouragement and accountability. What is more, we can become partners in our teacher’s growth and success, which furthers their abilities to replicate this process for the success of their students.