Rachel
Burnham writes: This blog is written as part of the
#FeedbackCarnival curated by Helen Amery @WildFigSolns, a series of blog posts
all written on the theme of ‘Feedback would happen all the time if…’. As I have left it to the very last day of the
carnival to write something, I am very aware of just how good the posts have
been and that ‘feedback’ has been discussed from pretty much every angle and
point of view. It has been exalted,
debated, dissed and dissected.
But still I want to contribute. So, I thought I would share some of my
experiences of building the giving & receiving of peer feedback into
learning programmes.
This is an approach that I use in a number of the
learning programmes that I facilitate, particularly when developing the skills
of L&D professionals and people new to training. It is built into face to face sessions, but
also interactive webinars and activities taking place using discussion forums
on a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment – in this case Moodle based). I think it can be an incredibly powerful
learning tool – I notice huge differences in people’s confidence and in people’s
ability to reflect & learn by observing others from using it. It is an aspect of the programmes that
participants frequently comment on as being valuable. And it is something that can be taken away
and used in many other contexts.
I have been influenced in my thinking around this by PhilRace’s Ripples Model of Learning. I
don’t know if you are familiar with this approach to learning which was
developed within the context of higher and further education and (very simply)
views learning in terms of a series of activities that are happening
simultaneously & concurrently & affecting each other rather like the
ripples in a pond. The first factors or
ripples are all about the learners experiences, but he goes on to suggest that
further deepening of the learning takes place when you teach a topic – I know that
this is something that I have experienced - that deepening of understanding
that comes from facilitating learning of others, which is why ‘teach-back’ can
be such a useful learning method.
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| Image: mycourse.solent.ac.uk |
But
Phil Race also suggests that assessing others learning also provides
opportunities for further learning and again this fits with my own
experience. When assessing work, I get
see a topic or skill from many different points of view; to see it expressed in
many different ways, to see it applied in many different contexts, to see it
misunderstood, poorly explained, explained more clearly than I can ever hope to
and turned on its head & upside down.
Sometimes I think I have only really got to grips with some
skills/topics once I have seen them really worked through by a group of
‘learners’.
So, why not involve get ‘learners’ involved in assessing
and providing feedback to their peers?
I have used this approach when working on practical
skills such as coaching, delivering learning sessions and also on design of learning
and found it to be very effective. For
example, I make use of peer feedback process in a programme developing coaching
skills. Over the course of a session
each participant gets to be a coach, to be coached and to observe & provide
feedback on a number of peers coaching.
This process of ‘observing to be able to provide quality feedback’
really focuses the observation process and helps participants to notice &
value what is working and also what could have been done differently. Each experience of observing a peer brings
out different aspects that have been done well and helps the observers to
identify for themselves what effective practice includes.
Here are some pointers from my experience to get the most
from a peer feedback approach:
Preparation
I find it works best to encourage some kind of discussion
about what feedback is & why it is important, prior to encouraging peer
feedback. I find this is useful so that
we get chance to explore our different perceptions of feedback, to encourage
the valuing of positive feedback and to acknowledge some negative experiences
that we may have had when being ‘given’ feedback. This enables us to build a shared
understanding of what feedback can be like.
I usually do this immediately prior to the activity in which the
participants will be giving peer feedback.
This means that this introduction to ‘giving & receiving feedback’
leads into an immersion into giving & receiving feedback for real.
I have used a variety of different activities to
stimulate this discussion. My current
favourite approach is a card based activity, developed by a colleague, which
invites participants to explore a series of statements about feedback and pick
out the one or two that particularly resonate with them. All the statements are helpful pieces of
advice when giving or receiving feedback.
A lot of the value from this activity is getting participants to draw
upon their own experience of what works & doesn’t work in the giving &
receiving of feedback. In exploring what
feedback is, I tend to avoid using a particular model of providing feedback,
preferring a more organic approach.
Role
Model
If you are going to encourage peer feedback, then as a
facilitator you need to model this yourself, both in the way you provide
feedback and also in the way you receive feedback.
Recently, I was facilitating an introductory session
around developing coaching skills and carried out a demonstration coaching
session with one of the participants which was observed by the rest of the
group. I confess that this was not one
of my better days - it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great either. Amongst other things, I became aware as the
session progressed that I was asking multi-headed questions and of course, as
soon as I became aware of that, it felt like I did nothing but ask multiple
questions. When debriefing this, I
invited the observers to share what they had seen – fortunately there were
‘good’ bits to notice and then I went on to invite them to share with me what I
could do even better – and I was delighted that they were able to pinpoint a
number of things I could ‘sharpen up on’ including the multiple questions. At
least I got good value out of that particular demonstration by receiving
feedback graciously!
Support
the peer feedback process
I find it helps to facilitate the peer feedback
process. In one of the programmes I
work on, the same group get many opportunities to provide each other with
feedback and they grow in confidence & skills in doing this. The first time I find I often need to manage
the process quite carefully providing a structure and almost ‘chairing’ the
process, inviting individuals in turn to contribute feedback & at times
managing the balance of critical & appreciative feedback or asking
questions to get beyond generalities.
Whereas, in subsequent sessions, this too is handed over to participants
to take turns at leading themselves.
It is good to build in time to reflect on the experience
of providing feedback – though at times it can get a bit ‘hall of mirrors’,
when providing feedback on providing feedback.
Start
with self-reflection
When encouraging peer feedback, I have found it makes
sense to start with encouraging the individual who has been ‘doing’ to
self-reflect on that experience. So,
when encouraging feedback on a coaching session, I usually start with
encouraging the ‘coach’ to self-reflect or give themselves some feedback,
before moving on to invite the coachee to provide feedback and then other peers
who have been observing.
I find this makes the feedback more personal to the
individual, more responsive to their needs and their view of their
performance. What follows this it
perhaps a bit more ‘messy’ than feedback delivered using a particular model,
but it seems to make it more of a conversation and less of something which you
are subjected to.
Appreciative
feedback
I think we often underplay the huge value in feedback
that helps us to notice, value and understand what we are doing well
already. Sometimes when encouraging
peer feedback, I focus on encouraging purely appreciative feedback that picks
out & highlights what is working well and why we think that. I find this often gives enough food for
thought to help us to further improve the way we are working, without the need
to provide critical feedback. For this
to work, it does need to be more than a general ‘that was lovely’ and to be
specific & detailed.
Design
the criteria
One thing I haven’t done yet, but have in the pipeline,
is to invite participants not only to provide peer feedback but also to design
the criteria upon which it is based.
This would further extend the learning opportunity for participants by
challenging them to crystallise their thinking about whatever the aspect of
performance the learning is focused on and to put in their own words what ‘good
looks like’.
I think encouraging peer feedback is a very useful &
effective approach and fits in well with building an organisational learning
environment that encourages continuous learning, both through self-reflection
and social learning.
Given the theme of this post, I would of course particularly
welcome your feedback.
Rachel
Burnham
4/5/15
Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D
professionals become even more effective.
I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social
media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of
learning on performance.
Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD
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