Providing Feedback
Hi. Dr Vaillancourt,
Below are my responses to each scenario:
Scenario 1: I would provide constructive criticism to Mike> I would describe where he did excellent vs. where he fell short. I would also make some suggestions on improvement.
Scenario 2: In Kathy's feedback, I would ask if she understood the assignment and offer tutoring assistance. I would also make positive and negative constructive criticism on her assignments.
Consider the two scenarios below and describe how you will communicate to each of these learners. Discuss the reasoning behind your feedback decisions.
Scenario 1: Mike turns in a self-evaluation of his performance on an assignment that indicates that he thought he did an excellent job and met all of the criteria in the grading rubric. When you grade Mike's assignment, you see that he has not done as well as he thought he did.
Describe how you will communicate with Mike regarding his performance in relationship to how he thought he did.
Without providing the details of your feedback, discuss the ways you could provide actionable feedback to him to help him improve his performance.
Scenario 2: Kathy turns in a self-evaluation of her performance on the assignment that indicates that she knows she didn't do a good job on the assignment. When you grade it you find that she accurately evaluated her performance.
How will your communications differ from how you communicated with Mike?
What will be your area of focus to provide actionable feedback to help her improve performance?
Scenario 1:
I believe in this scenario I would pull out my grading rubic that I have for the assignment and list exactly what points were taken off from where. I would set up a meeting to talk with Mike and go over where his strengths were and then I would use the rubric to go over where he didn't. I think once you sit down and explain where the points were taken off and give the students advice on how to improve will help them understand and see where they missed some points.
Scenario 2:
My communication would differ because this student does realize where her mistakes were so she would understand why she lost points in this area vs, Mike who thinks he did grade and may need more of an explination. I would focus with this student on ways to help gain the accurate points. Therefore, where the points were lacking I would give ideas to help bring up those scores and may even refer the student to some extra help.
With Mike, the key would be figuring out where the disconnect is between his perceived and actual performance. I would reach out to Mike via email or set up a time to talk over the phone/during office hour.
The first thing I would do would be to ask him (using warm words and tone) the very same question that was asked of him in the self-evaluation. It is possible that Mike might have misread the question or perhaps mismarked his form. If he did respond the same way, I would ask him to elaborate on his answer. If the disconnect was still present, I would re-explain the assignment criteria and rubric. Hopefully the "ah ha!" moment would happen somewhere in that part of the discussion.
If not, I'd take him through the assignment as if I were grading it on the spot discussing each area for opportunity. It would be important to validate Mike's efforts on the assignment, discuss how to prepare for the next one, and give him some tips for self-check/assessment. To finish, I'd follow-up with him at some point within the week.
I actually would go through the same first step with Kathy of having her confirm her self-evaluation. As with the case of Mike, we need to confirm that she didn't misread/mismark.
If the result was the same, I would ask her (again with warm tone and careful word choice) to share with me three things that she thought she did well and three things that she might have done differently looking back on the assignment. If she and I were on the same page--then we would move on to what she could do to help prepare herself for the next assignment. If not, we'd discuss each item in detail.
There would be little difference in how I would communicate with Kathy because the only difference between the two is that Kathy was aware of her short-comings while Mike was not. Once that is overcome--the rest would be the same. We'd talk about how to prepare for the next assignment and discuss the importance of self checks/assessments.
My goal would be that Kathy leaves the conversation feeling as though she has a game plan and that our follow-up conversation within the week would find her performance and confidence on a better track.
Monica,
Good advice for everyone to consider. These strategies reflect best practices of online instructors and are easy to implement.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
My student feedback to Mike would include encouraging, motivating words as I mentor him into striving for excellence. I would encourage him to continue to do his best. I would provide supplementary material to help enhance his understanding of the coursework. I would try to motivate him to perform well by encouraging him to strive for excellence. I would suggest additional tutoring session to help him with his assignments. In addition I would advise him to review the grading rubric for the assignment and check off each item as he completes it to ensure that his expectations are in direct alignment with the student expectations for the assignment.
As far as Kathy the student who felt she did not meet the student expectation and actually did; I would encourage her to continue to strive for excellence as well. I would advise her that sometimes we are our own worst enemy. I would inform her as well to review the grading rubric to ensure she has completed all of the requirements to successfully complete the assignment to receive the full points. I would try to boost her confidence level by letting her know she is doing an excellent job and to keep up the good work.
In the first case it is important to help the student understand why their self-evaluation differed from your view of the assignment. This is helped by using a good grading rubric (that should have been given to the students prior to the assignment. Provide feedback on each of the major points of the rubric and explain what the student could have done better to achieve a better results.
In the second case, the feedback would actually be similar (tell the student what they did well, tell the student what they didn't do so well, and tell the student how they can improve). The second student likely has already seen the areas that need improvement, but your feedback should still point those things out and provide suggestions for improvement.
Kurt
Definitely...bad news should always come personally, and not on a shared discussion site or a chat room site. Inevitably, I have a student that asks about their grade in a live lecture, workshop, or chat session...it happens every term. I simply remind the student that the forum is for public discussions only, such as the material for the class, and that I will take the first available opportunity to discuss the issue with them offline.
Mike would need to be directed to the actual points within the rubric, and asked if he read and understood these instructions as written. In doing so, I would ask Mike how he came up with his answers to the assignment questions, and tailor my response to his strategies and learning style. I would show him that hitting all of the points in the rubric will be the first step to success in his future assignments, and then show him how he can surpass expectations after meeting those requirements.
Kathy will need some encouragement. She knew that she handed in sub-standard work...why did she do this? The answer to this question will shape the way I handle her throughout the course. Did she not have time to do a thorough job? did she not understand the material? Is she a slow reader? Are her written communication skills in need of improvement? Is it a combination of some or all of these, or some other issue? These questions would need to be answered in a synchronous discussion with Kathy in order to know how to move forward.
Debra,
Very good and thorough. Well done.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Scenario #1: I will help Mike understand that while he addressed all of the topic questions for the assignment his responses would have been much more effective if he had (a) provided more details and (b) offered examples to illustrate specific aspects of his responses. Then I would use a "for instance" to point to a place in his response where he addressed the question that was being asked but did so in only a general way and suggest a more specific way to respond, and I would also offer an example.
Scenario #2: I would say to Kathy that it appears to me she has a very solid and self-reflective awareness of her performance on the assignment and praise her for her level of awareness and forthrightness on her evaluation. I would next ask her if she is willing to share with me some of her ideas about reasons she did not do as well as she could have, and offer to continue a dialogue with her about opportunities for improvement. For instance, if she responds that she did not have enough time to get through all of the course material assigned to support the assignment, I would see if our dialogue could get to the bottom of how she might manage her study time more effectively or utilize some reading strategies that could be helpful when she is unexpectedly short of preparation time.
Karen,
Building trust with the student is a foundational component, especially students like Kathy. Very good. Thanks for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I want to encourage Mike and keep his confidence up, by highlighting the areas of his assignment that he did correctly. I would give him additional feedback regarding why his answers were incorrect. I would also suggest to Mike that he carefully review the learning material and that he makes sure he understands what the questions are asking of him. I might suggest that he look up terms if I see that he answered inaccurately because of his lack of knowledge of key words.
With Kathy, I want to build her confidence, and make sure she knows what value she brings to the class. I will thank or appreciate her for the good qualities and characteristics she has, such as turning in assignments in a timely manner or her attention to detail, willingness to participate etc. I would then communicate to her why her answers were incorrect and how she could improve based on the answers she provided. I also want to find out how Kathy feels she learns best and suggest activities that foster her learning style.
My communication with Kathy will be different from Mikes, because I need to build her self-confidence and I also need to get Kathy to trust me so that she will feel comfortable in coming to me with questions.
I agree with you Mara on this point. An instructor should not correct a student specifically on their performance or such in public. There are exceptions in regard to correction in a discussion as sometimes a student will post erroneous information that would mislead the class. What I would do is either private message the student and allows them to correct themselves by "realizing" they had made an error, or pose a comment to the whole group an informational correction, with supporting reference or documentation. The important element is not to be critical in front of others. This is not solely limited to the online environment, in classroom scenarios also apply. No one wants to be embarrassed in front of their peers, whether online or not.
With Mike I would let him know about what he accomplished that was correct. If he was less than perfect in cetian areas I would let him know what the correct response was and refer him to the resource for him to follow up. Then I would encourage him to continue his ggod work for the rest of the session. In Kathy's situation I awoudl again parise her for doing the assignment correctly and let her know it was all correct. At this point I would encourage her to continue to turn in this high quality of work in future assignments.
Theresa,
Well stated. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
When providing feed back to the student, use the sandwich method, address him by name, and let him know that you appreciated his work, then explain the areas that he can improve in,for example for my students when I wanted them to get in the habit of citing a source I posted one of my old papers for example, and show them how it should have been done, once i did that this brought clarity to the students, and with that being said that is how i would give feed back to this student.
Loretta,
Very good. Your individualized comprehense approach looks excellent. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Hello Dr. Vaillancourt, I have provided my response below:
Consider the two scenarios below and describe how you will communicate to each of these learners. Discuss the reasoning behind your feedback decisions.
Scenario 1: Mike turns in a self-evaluation of his performance on an assignment that indicates that he thought he did an excellent job and met all of the criteria in the grading rubric. When you grade Mike's assignment, you see that he has not done as well as he thought he did.
Describe how you will communicate with Mike regarding his performance in relationship to how he thought he did.
My feedback for Mike would involve how his confidence is a powerful tool for continually improving his outcomes on his assignments.
Without providing the details of your feedback, discuss the ways you could provide actionable feedback to him to help him improve his performance.
I would respectfully encourage him to strengthen the areas that did not meet the requirements for the grading rubric. I would provide an example on how to meet the requirements for the grading rubric so Mike could learn and build from my feedback on his assignment.
Scenario 2: Kathy turns in a self-evaluation of her performance on the assignment that indicates that she knows she didn't do a good job on the assignment. When you grade it you find that she accurately evaluated her performance.
How will your communications differ from how you communicated with Mike?
I would compliment Kathy on her reasonable self-evaluation.
What will be your area of focus to provide actionable feedback to help her improve performance?
Since Kathy did acknowledge that she could have had a better outcome on her assignment, I would encourage her to contact me with any questions that arise while she is completing her future assignments. I would inform her that if she begins her assignments and a question arises or she feels she could have a better outcome for her assignment, I would encourage Kathy to contact me and ask me for my thoughts/suggestions to assist her along with her assignment. Sometimes a student needs a little encouragement/support to ensure they are on the right path with completing an assignment.
In both cases my feedback will be specific rather than general. My feedback is focused on behavior rather than on the person. It is important that we refer to what a person does rather than to what we think or imagine he/she is. My feedback will take into account the needs of the receiver of the feedback. Feedback can be destructive when it serves only your own needs and fails to consider the needs of the person on the receiving end. It should be given to help, not to hurt. It involves sharing of information rather than giving advice. By sharing information, we leave a person free to decide in accordance with goals, needs, etc. In general, immediate feedback is most useful (depending of course, on the person's readiness to hear it, support available from others, etc.). Excellent feedback presented at an inappropriate time may do more harm than good. Overloading on feedback reduces the person's ability to effectively use your comments. Mt feedback will be clear communication. My feedback would allow the reviewer to ask more questions or to get better clarification.
