Top Three Ways to Do Lesson Feedback - badly...

Lesson observations can be a profoundly positive or negative experience; I've seen teachers rejuvenated, inspired, depressed and infuriated by the process, alongside others who just tolerate the whole thing as a wearisome but probably unavoidable chore, like a routine visit to the dentist or getting a haircut (although I was astonished to learn from a colleague recently that some people actively look forward to visiting the hairdressers. I kid you not. My own view is that only one criterion applies when selecting a 'coiffeur': how quickly can they do it? My guy is FAST - admittedly he can be a bit choppy-scrapey at times, and there's often some blood, but when the time expended on the whole sorry exercise is more or less the same as filling the car up with petrol, who's complaining?). 

Anyway. It's important of course that we put sufficient thought and reflection into making lesson obs as good as it can be - I've written in a previous post about how we are trying to develop approaches which provide high-quality, purposeful feedback in a culture of humility. Whilst it's interesting to focus on how to do things better, there's also much to be gained in considering the many ways that well-meaning observers have managed to cock this up over the years; in this spirit, I'd suggest the following. I've definitely made some of these mistakes in the past, but they aren't all mine I promise - others are cobbled together from feedback I've received or witnessed. 

1) Be excessively thorough / clinical. OK, so this one I have been guilty of. I used to take the view that a good way to conduct lesson obs was to write down as much as humanly possible in the time available, filling sides and sides of paper with notes, transcripts of discussions and explanations, questions, notes and comments, leaving lessons with a year-11-in-mocks-week-style aching arm and a misguided sense of doing 'the right thing'. Feedback would then involve looking back over this and talking it through. In fairness, there are some people who liked this approach, appreciating the detail and precision it provided. There are others who didn't, because it felt overwhelming, provided too much to think about, and lost coherence. It's an example of when well-meaning, sincere attempts to be as helpful as possible go wrong, because they aren't showing enough understanding of the human realities of the interaction that's occurring - the fact that lesson observation is emotional, draining, tiring etc, and that a more realistic, sensitive, less-is-more approach often yields better results.

2) Be excessively relational. It's a tough one this, because of course relationships in schools are paramount, and it's essential that teachers feel that lesson feedback is fundamentally supportive of them. It's also inescapable that for many (in fact almost all) of us, receiving direct feedback provokes a strong emotional response: sometimes feedback, even when delivered with the utmost sensitivity and care, feels bad. It just does, because it brings into play powerful feelings associated with pride, shame, security, safety etc, and I'm not sure really what anyone can do to avoid it. It's particularly the case at the moment that the feedback is being received - in the meeting itself - and almost always dissipates over time. Nevertheless, it can be very tempting for an observer to focus exclusively or excessively on positives, in an attempt to use the lesson observation process as a tool for boosting or improving relationships, which would be fine were it not at the expense of giving genuinely useful advice on what was not going well. I may be wrong, but my sense is that on occasion, particularly early in my career (and to be clear, I've received lots of very valuable advice through lesson observation over the years), I received feedback along the lines of 'that was great, it went really well', when what the observer really meant was 'you are clearly working hard and I want you to feel valued'. It's nice to feel valued - of course - it's also useful to be given frank advice or a point of view on what could be improved - yes, I would have felt bad. For a bit. I would have got over it, and I'm pretty sure that I could have improved more quickly, lots of kids would have felt the benefit. 

3) Feedback in ways which don't suit those involved. So - there are clearly different styles of feedback that might be adopted, from a pure coaching approach, where the coach simply questions, probes and listens, to a highly-directive 'this is what happened in the lesson, this was good this was bad, do this next time' style. It's difficult to commit to a particular style, as it depends on the preferences, experience and skills of both parties involved in the discussion, but seems reasonable to aim somewhere in the middle, whilst being highly conscious of what might be best for each situation.

It's pretty obvious that highly directive feedback to experienced, proud professionals feels disrespectful and inappropriate (mainly because it is), and is unlikely to lead to anything good happening. The same applies at the other end of the continuum; in the past I've both witnessed and delivered some spectacularly cack-handed coaching, filled with leading questions, awkward silences, rambling stuttering monologues and a general sense of bewilderment and fear all round. I remember being asked to go to do some coaching with a PE teacher and it being made clear that the expectation was for me not to give any direct views or opinions… ten minutes of second-guessing and conversational blind-alleys later, the teacher asked me with a pleading look whether I might not be able to just tell them what I thought about the lesson, at which point the coaching cloud lifted and finally a sensible and useful discussion was possible. Now of course coaching devotees will rightly point out here that what I describe is not coaching as such, merely an off-shoot of the genre entitled 'Very Bad Coaching Indeed'. And that's fair enough - but I bet there's plenty of 'VBCI' around, and the notion that observers giving opinions in feedback is somehow harmful / disrespectful / pointless is accepted as an orthodoxy in some schools; I disagree, as hearing the views of others can help a great deal… not always, sure, but often enough.

So there we are - just a few of the ways that the complex, fascinating interactions in lesson obs feedback can go wrong, and I'm sure there are many many more… if you have any to add to the list, let me know @tomboulter