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After a break of two years, I am classroom teaching again. I am privileged to work in a school that encourages its staff to dig deep as we move towards a 'new normal' in teaching and learning. We need to seriously consider new research and understandings of how students learn best and what is needed in a 21st century world. So now I take the plunge into considering how I put into practice some of my learnings over the last two years and continue to stretch my understandings and practice.
Today I reflect on the concept of feedforward. As we support our students in inquiry-learning and facilitate their holistic development, I have read this blog from Cult of Pedagogy and listened to the podcast interview with Joe Hirsch. Hirsch challenges the traditional formats and approaches of feedback and argues for us to take on a more collaborative approach in feedforward - not just with our students but in our workplaces as well.
Traditional feedback focuses on ratings and not on development. It is often devised from a set of standardised performance standards. It is often dominated by the giver of the feedback, not by the receiver. One of the problems with traditional feedback is that it often leads to mental paralysis. Our frontal lobes go into a defensive mode and goes dark. This is because we are hearing about past flaws that we cannot change. This creates a learned helplessness - we are powerless to do anything about it and usually leads to a fixed mindset. The very process that is meant to energise us actually makes us think that there is no better version of ourselves. We end up focusing on who we are rather than who we are becoming.
Hirsch states that the essential goal of feedback is to create positive and lasting improvement. The research on feedforward concepts have been around for the last 20 years. The focus is on the future and not on the past. Feedforward is interested in development and not just about providing a rating. It uses a collaborative, authentic, partnership approach to learning and prompts the receiver on a path to self-discovery. A quote from the interview that I found very powerful:
'People don't fear change; they fear being changed'.
This is why the traditional command and control method of feedback has such little impact. When you can coach and guide someone to make changes for themselves, this is far more impactful than traditional approaches. Hirsch outlines six key qualities for a feedforward approach. These form a REPAIR model and are summarised in the image below.
A few key takeaways for me as I consider how I use this approach in my own teaching:
Current generation is interested in a lattice not a ladder - they are looking sideways for skills and personal development opportunities. There is a great need for coaching and creating opportunities for growth and stretch.
Take a leaf out of the improvisation world. Yes, and...
I noticed, I wonder, what if, how might?
Need to be specific and thoughtful of the focus of our feedback. Feedback is not a cleaver - it's a toothpick.
A continuous and ongoing conversation
Dump the praise sandwich - it's not authentic. Give voice and choice to the receiver.
PREP: Point, reason, explain and prompt. Prompt needs to give voice to the receiver and facilitate a collaborative conversation. What do you think we can do about this? How can you see a way of us improving this?
You can't force change on someone.
Guided self-discovery is impactful.
Consider creative abrasion. Bringing people together with different experience, knowledge and skills. This leads to the creation of something new and unfamiliar.
So what, now?
I am wondering how we can be more intentional and structured to support these concepts of feedforward in our learning spaces? I find it hard to give useful feedback in the buzz of a classroom where we are constantly moving between 60 students. Workshops provide one such means but even then, how well can it be individualised to support where each student is at. This is what I am pondering as I move into Term 2 and consider how we can provide meaningful feedforward to students in order to support them in learning that demonstrates how we value development over student ratings and performance.
