Feedback Styles

Laura Border of Colorado University--Boulder offers an intriguing analysis, which by analogy should resonate with faculty in a couple ways.  Her analysis of "feedback style" posits 4 roles that she advises a teaching consultant should include when assisting college faculty to improve their teaching.  It seems to me that at least two other applications could use the same 4 roles--faculty giving feedback to students and faculty observing peers teach. The four functions are--support, collect data, evaluate, and facilitate.  The first two functions include stating facts; the latter two involve analyzing the facts and applying them to improvement.  

The trick for the practitioner--peer observer giving feedback to the peer observed at that peer's request OR a faculty member giving feedback to students--is to know how best to MIX these four types of behavior to keep the peer or the student positive about making progress and willing to decide on actions to improve.

Support: In order to be positive, provide a safe learning environment, and [encourage perhaps anxious participants to continue], supportive comments often paraphrase ideas that the colleague or student has stated.

Collect Data: Especially if the colleague or student asks for information, the faculty member giving feedback should state the facts.  Even doing that much may give the impression that the colleague or student is being watched and judged. Impact depends on skillfully and tactfully giving feedback, as well as the receptiveness of the colleague or student.

Evaluate:  In order to progress, encourage the colleague or the student to stretch, but don't hold either to an ideal standard.  Improvement is the goal, not perfection.  If possible, get the colleague or the student to analyze the data or observations and set goals, but also offer options that they aren't thinking of, along with a viable rationale.

Facilitate: To be an effective change agent, describe aspects of the colleague's or the student's performance, but also provide guidance by asking leading questions, posing alternatives, and on setting realistic goals for improvement.

Source: Laura L. B. Border, "Identifying and Assessing Your Consultation Style," Practically Speaking: A Sourcebook for Instructional Consultants in Higher Education, edited by Kathleen T. Brinko and Robert J. Menges (Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press, 1997), 211-216.

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