Feedback for the Learners


Facilitators have many opportunities to provide feedback to the learners. An obvious opportunity is during a guided discussion in which you ask a pre-planned question to the group, the learners respond, and you follow up with additional information that augments the comments. When an individual responds, you want to affirm him or her and, if you can, the response. You can say such things as, “That’s good” or “Great response” or “I like that, anyone else have a comment?”

Other times, the respondent may provide a superficial answer and you want more depth. In this case, you can say something such as, “Yes, now can you tell me more?” or “OK, now take me deeper into what you have in mind” or “Great start, what else can we say about that?” While you are affirming, you are also letting the learners know that there is more learning to be gained from the question.

A more difficult situation is when the learner’s response is incorrect; then, you cannot afford to agree. Some facilitators agree with comments that are wrong in order to avoid confronting the issue or to be supportive of the learner. This tactic is not recommended. Part of giving feedback is to indicate when a learner gives an incorrect response. Yes, you still want to affirm the learner, but not the incorrect answers. In this case, say something like, “I understand what you are saying, however that relates more to” or you can paraphrase the response and indicate that this relates more to something else than to the current subject. You can also use the tactic of responding by saying, “Let me reframe the question” and ask the question in another way. By all means, be tactful, but do not accept answers that are wrong, incomplete, or superficial. Your role is to ensure that a complete response is provided by the group.

Tests and Assessments

Tests and assessments—whether written or oral—also provide feedback to participants. Test question formats must align with the learning objectives. For example, if your learning objective says the participants “will be able to recognize (certain items),” your test can contain a matching or multiple-choice question. If the learning objective indicates that the participants “will be able to list (certain items),” the test questions can ask the participants to list the items, put a list in order, or match items with their definitions.

The purpose of these types of tests is to assess knowledge and provide immediate feedback to the learners. Because these are used for development, an important

Basic Rule 30

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The type of test or assessment must align with the learning objectives.

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step is for you to go over the tests and rationale for missed questions. This not only gives feedback, but also reinforces content.

What about testing skills or behaviors and providing feedback? In this case you should have a checklist that is used in conjunction with a learning activity. For example, if the participants are to demonstrate a procedure, you have a behavioral observation checklist of those steps, and learners will use the checklist to observe each other. Intellectual skills are generally assessed by how well a person solves a problem situation or case study. If they are to demonstrate an intellectual skill (for example, “plan a car trip using a map”), you have a quality checklist that lists criteria for “what a good car trip plan looks like,” and that checklist will be used to evaluate the quality of the plan. The checklist can be a scaled instrument (0–4, with descriptors for each rating) to assess the quality of the case solution. You have the correct case solution that you then match to the solution provided by the learners. In assessing the learner’s case solution, you are looking for completeness and quality of content.

Interpersonal skills are usually assessed in a behavior modeling or role-play assessment. Say, for example, that the behavior being assessed is “conducting a coaching conversation.” To assess this skill, you’ll use a checklist of the steps and skills associated with each step of a coaching session to observe a learner practicing the skill of conducting a coaching conversation. If you are assessing the skill for step-by-step behaviors only, the checklist will contain the process steps for a coaching conversation in order with a yes/no answer, so the observer can indicate that the learner did or did not follow the process. However, you might also be assessing the coaching conversation skill for quality. In that case, the checklist will contain criteria regarding how well (quality statements) participants demonstrated the process steps rather than simply a yes/no answer as to whether they demonstrated the step. The observer then completes the checklist and provides objective feedback to the learner.

Although your facilitator’s guide provides instructions, there are usually a couple of options here for how to structure the activity. For example, in the coaching session role-play example, if other learners provide peer feedback, you can form learner triads with one learner using the checklist to observe and give feedback to the one practicing the skill; then triad members exchange roles. This setup ensures complete feedback. If you use a fishbowl technique, wherein a few learners enact the role-play and are observed by the rest of the group, you provide the feedback yourself. In either case, there is a document of objective feedback based on the skills/behaviors observed.

Think About This

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Tests and assessments provide objective feedback to the learners. The instruments are built into the learning activity and should allow for practice or application and reinforce content. The more objective and comprehensive the instrument, the better the feedback is.

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Debriefing Sessions

Debriefing sessions are great opportunities to provide feedback to learners, both during learning activities and especially after the activity is complete. As learners make their presentations, you and the learners are interacting with the presenting group. Here, you are giving feedback in the form of questions, examples, dialogue, and so forth. Or, you have just completed a learning activity, and you now have the opportunity to provide feedback. The debriefing is the time for you to summarize the lessons learned, to reinforce the content, and support transfer. Although the content of the debriefing is in the leader’s guide, you want to make real-time comments and applications.

Performance Contracts As Feedback

As you may recall, the learner fills out the performance contract prior to coming to the workshop. It is completed between the individual and his or her manager. This document then becomes a pre-course organizer and document for transfer. It also provides an opportunity to provide feedback to learners. At designated times during the learning event, the participants have the opportunity to apply content through completion or revision of their performance contract. As they complete their work, you engage in a dialogue with them (individually or by group) about some of their ideas and strategies. This feedback helps them to rethink their transfer strategies from a content and job environment perspective.

Basic Rule 31

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Feedback, tests, and assessments can be part of learning activities.

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Action Planning

Whether done intermittently throughout the learning or at the end, action plans should not be a learner activity only; they also provide an opportunity to provide feedback on course content and transfer. While learners are completing their structured action plans, you can be moving about the room, offering coaching. At the

Noted

Providing objective feedback is critical to learning. When the feedback is in the form of tests and assessments, there is always a question as to who sees the information and how it will be used. It is recommended that you emphasize to your clients (often the managers of your learners) that the feedback is for development and to reinforce learning. After the feedback instrument and process have been completed in the course, it is suggested that you do not collect the information unless it is for facilitator development (more on this in chapter 9). Even then, collect this information only in aggregate, anonymous form. In some cases, managers may want to see individuals’ performance. Resist such requests. You never know how that information may be used. There are legal ramifications if this information is used for HR types of decisions (merit, promotion, demotion, termination, and so forth). Maintain a learner privacy position.

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Given the great value in learners’ discovering new knowledge rather than just being “told,” one of the best learning moments a facilitator can create is “the personal aha.” A personal aha occurs when the learner realizes that what he or she has been doing up until this point is incorrect and then discovers the right way to do it. And, this realization happens in a way that does not embarrass the learner; the aha is personal and private. For example, in a course for managers on how to conduct job interviews, one of the learning activities might be to watch a video of someone conducting a job interview incorrectly. The group then critiques what they saw. For those learners who have been conducting interviews incorrectly, this activity helps them discover and correct their mistakes in an individual, personal, and nonpublic way.

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conclusion of the planning or that segment of the planning, learners can share their plans. As a facilitator of learning, you can then reinforce the content, add ideas for transfer, and involve the larger group in a dialogue about ideas.




Facilitation Basics
Facilitation Basics (ASTD Training Basics)
ISBN: 1562863614
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 82

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