‘We can only judge the quality of teaching through its impact on learning’
When facing criticism, fight the urge to hit back, or curl into a ball and cry, and you’ll be a better teacher for it, says Julie Price Grimshaw…
It’s fascinating to me how the way we teach can be such an intensely personal thing for so many of us.
I pay a riding instructor to point out my faults so that I can become a better rider. I’ve paid various instrumental tutors to tell me, as bluntly as possible, what I was doing wrong so that I could become a better musician.
Having a discussion about teaching with the intention to maximise learning is the main aim of feedback. But I believe that, for many teachers, being graded has really got in the way of this. Even without the grading, however, some teachers still regard any suggestions for improvement as a personal insult.
Reflect and learn
For feedback to have the best impact possible, we need two things: a person who is truly skilled in delivering feedback, and a person who takes both praise and criticism professionally.
A single lesson observation is a relatively small fragment of the available evidence on the quality of your teaching. Every single one of us has taught lessons that would, in the past, have been judged ‘inadequate’, but the ability to reflect and to learn from both our successes and errors is a valuable asset.
Sometimes the views of another professional can make a huge difference. School leaders typically speak highly of those who clearly consider the views of observers. The turning point for me, as a teacher, was realising that I had nothing to hide and deciding to invite anyone and everyone into my classroom. I knew that they would not always see things going according to plan, especially as I liked to try out new ideas and approaches. But I knew enough about my pupils’ learning to be fairly confident that some things were working well, and I found it interesting to get feedback from visitors. As we can only judge the quality of teaching through its impact on learning, observers should be focusing, first and foremost, on the pupils.
I once visited a school where the teachers were notoriously hostile when it came to observations of teaching. But on this occasion the headteacher told them, on the morning of my visit, that I would be calling into classrooms to observe the pupils learning. For some reason, that made all the difference.
Julie Price Grimshaw is a teacher, teacher trainer, and education consultant; she has taught primary and secondary, and has been involved in school inspections since 2001.
Her ebook, Self-propelled learning and effective teaching, is available now via Amazon; for more information, visit www.selfpropelledlearning.co.uk or follow @Julespg
But for a long time I was far from comfortable with anyone criticising any aspect of my teaching, and I can’t really explain why. I know that many others feel the same, though, and that’s what can make ‘feedback’ a little tricky at times.
An art in itself
When I made the move to the ‘other side’, however, I quickly found that giving feedback in a constructive and sensitive manner is an art in itself. Back when teaching in lessons was graded during inspections, I found that many teachers who came for feedback fell into one of these groups:
‘But I always get outstanding’ Which becomes a problem when he or she wasn’t ‘outstanding’ in your view. One example that springs to mind was the teacher who said, ‘I admit there were elements of inadequate, and the fight was unfortunate. But I always get outstanding and overall I think I deserve it this time.’
Hmm. ‘Outstanding with inadequate features’ – that’d be an interesting judgement.
Grit the teeth, listen, say ‘thank you’ and get out of the room as soon as possible In other words, ‘I didn’t really want to come for feedback and I certainly don’t want a discussion.’ I have to confess, in my early years of teaching I fell into this category…
‘It all went wrong! I know it was awful! You don’t need to tell me’ Some say this in the hope that you will disagree with them and say that they are being too hard on themselves. Sometimes that’s the right thing to say; at others it turns out that their judgement is correct. Interestingly, this can then lead to disagreements.
‘Just tell me what grade I got and I’ll be off’ Self-explanatory – and one of the reasons that the grading of teaching in lessons was dropped.
Having a discussion about teaching with the intention to maximise learning is the main aim of feedback. But I believe that, for many teachers, being graded has really got in the way of this. Even without the grading, however, some teachers still regard any suggestions for improvement as a personal insult.
Reflect and learn
For feedback to have the best impact possible, we need two things: a person who is truly skilled in delivering feedback, and a person who takes both praise and criticism professionally.
A single lesson observation is a relatively small fragment of the available evidence on the quality of your teaching. Every single one of us has taught lessons that would, in the past, have been judged ‘inadequate’, but the ability to reflect and to learn from both our successes and errors is a valuable asset.
Sometimes the views of another professional can make a huge difference. School leaders typically speak highly of those who clearly consider the views of observers. The turning point for me, as a teacher, was realising that I had nothing to hide and deciding to invite anyone and everyone into my classroom. I knew that they would not always see things going according to plan, especially as I liked to try out new ideas and approaches. But I knew enough about my pupils’ learning to be fairly confident that some things were working well, and I found it interesting to get feedback from visitors. As we can only judge the quality of teaching through its impact on learning, observers should be focusing, first and foremost, on the pupils.
I once visited a school where the teachers were notoriously hostile when it came to observations of teaching. But on this occasion the headteacher told them, on the morning of my visit, that I would be calling into classrooms to observe the pupils learning. For some reason, that made all the difference.
Julie Price Grimshaw is a teacher, teacher trainer, and education consultant; she has taught primary and secondary, and has been involved in school inspections since 2001.
Her ebook, Self-propelled learning and effective teaching, is available now via Amazon; for more information, visit www.selfpropelledlearning.co.uk or follow @Julespg
