FORUM: Post your feedback to mini-session facilitators
Facilitators appreciate thoughtful and helpful feedback during and especially after their mini-sessions. They will use your comments posted in this forum and suggestions from their own reflection activity (the FLIF) to improve their facilitation skills.
Please, consult Suggestions for Giving Good Feedback or at least consider the points below, and then offer your comments in the appropriate thread.
Think about from the "learner perspective": What worked well for me? What could have been done differently? How will this impact my teaching?
Good feedback:
- Is solicited
- Is given to be helpful
- Is honest and given in a caring and respectful manner
- Is timely
- Is descriptive, rather than evaluative and describes behaviours you have observed, not your inferences about their causes.
- Emphasizes strengths – Too often we ignore what we do well. Let people know what they are doing well if it is desirable for them to continue doing it.
- Focuses on behaviours that can be changed and offers suggestions for change
- Is specific rather than general
Specific comments help the receiver to learn to replicate positive behaviours and to change ineffective ones. It is more helpful to say:
- "I like the way you personalize your interactions with learners by addressing them by name"
- "When you facilitate discussions, I like the way you support learners to resolve their issues themselves."
- "I noticed several learners are silent in the discussion group" What are some strategies you could use to change this?"
Rather than:
- "That was great!" (What was "great"? What contributed to its 'greatness'?);
- "That didn't work well!" (Were the problems, related to content, organization of material or delivery or reasons unrelated to the instructor?);
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