Unit 4: Feedback: the Knowledgeable Other
Target Objective: Through eliciting and responding to feedback, course users choose to inform and enrich their experience of teaching and learning.
In Unit 4, you will learn to develop deeper insight to your practice through examining it from the perspective of others. You will examine the ways that collaborative reflection can enhance professional growth. You will develop skill in forming essential questions in order to elicit a desired type of feedback. You will decide whether to collaborate with colleagues to continue developing your portfolio or to complete it as an individual professional development project. You will identify ways in which feedback from others will impact your practice of teaching and learning.
To begin Unit 4, complete the two reflective activities that follow.
Activity 1: Consider the following words. What do they mean? How are they related? How are they different? Can they have both positive and negative connotations[1]?
- Critical
- Critique
- Criticism
Activity 2: Read the following quotes regarding the giving and receiving of feedback. Assign them a value of 1 through 5 according to how meaningful they are to you, 1 being the most meaningful and 5 being the least.
"Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you can become."
- unattributed
"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, friend, acquaintance, or stranger."
- Franklin P. Jones
"The dread of criticism is the death of genius." - William Gilmore Simms
"Everyone wants the truth, but no one wants to be honest." - unattributed
"The aim of all commentary... should be to make ... our own experience more real ... to us. The function of criticism should be to show how (something) is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means." - Susan Sontag, abridged
As you complete Unit 4, use your reflections to guide your thinking about ways of using portfolio feedback from the "Knowledgeable Other" to improve your practice. When you are ready to continue, begin Lesson 4.1.
Lesson 4.1: Collaborative Reflection
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