Feedback - not alone

Throughout the course we see you as 'In conversation...' with us, with each other and with the handbooks. So how does feedback fit in with this?

How do we stand with feedback - 
Firstly, feedback is not about telling you how to get an 'A' it is about helping you develop your ideas and work from the place it is when you receive the feedback. So it is not about correcting the work in terms of telling what to do but it is about developing your work. This means that where ever your work is we will always support you in developing it further. Of course as Supervisors we will let you know if you are working at a level that will not pass. We will not be letting you march of the edge of a cliff!! but the Supervisors role is about working with you to go further so feedback will not likely ever be 'Yes, this is right.'!!

Secondly, so feedback is a conversation and on-going process which is why have a 'Feedback response sheet'.  This is so that we can document the conversation in brief. It is also so that you can direct your own feedback.
The feedback response sheet is sent with any drafts you send for feedback - you should use the sheet to ask questions that direct feedback such as
'I have used quotes to give examples of XXX but I wonder if too much of the essay is in the voice of others because of it.'
or practical questions
'I was not sure how to quote an interviewee I have used "" instead of '' for quotes from interviewee and put them I the bibliography but their interviews are not published so should they be in the bibliography?'

The Feedback response form should also be used after a Skype Supervisor tutorial (one-to-one) summarise the discussion and inform a blog about the tutorial.

The Feedback Response Form is therefore a document of learning, discussion and conversation for you to refer to as you study.  It supports the idea you are not alone in your study (you are in conversation) but not being alone does not mean you are just waiting to be told what to do.

A note: emailing your tutor should not be your first response to not understanding something!! First go back to the Handbook that is what they are for to explain the course, ideas and direct, then read some blogs of people who have done the Module you are on. Then have some time to think.

* feedback response templates can be found on UniHub or create one yourself as a word.doc

First of the Month discussion groups

We had our First Tuesday (and Monday) discussion groups this week.

We talked about feedback – how it is a two-way event not just something that is given and absorbed!! We talked about the different ways people have used and responded to their feedback. How have you done this? It is important to think of your interaction with feedback as being more than just ‘correction’. Just getting feedback and then changing things to get ‘better’ feedback is not as useful as the discussion feedback can stimulate within you and with others.

We talked about the oral presentation (for Module Threes) and the reflection essay (for Module Ones). Both are about summarising what you have been doing this term. We came up with the following words as ways to give you direction as you plan these two kinds of summary.

The oral presentation and the reflective essay:

·      Information

·      Insight into…

·      Collaboration understanding

·      Sharing work

·      Summary of engagement

Being able to say what some thing is about in just two sentences is a good test / goal to set yourself as you are writing and planning presentations. In all your work, you should be able to clearly say what the point is of what you are writing about / making.

We talked about how for Module One the blogs have ‘gone quiet’ and how now might be more the time to talk to each other.

We talked about the importance of relationships – with each other, with the work, with the feedback.

Themes that came out of the conversation are going to be posted on by:

Amanda - https://amcbahonspp.blogspot.co.uk

Lois-May - http://lois-mayhunt.blogspot.co.uk

Megan - http://meganlouch.blogspot.com/2017/05/coffee-shop-skype-may.html

Vicki - http://victoriamayvickers.blogspot.co.uk

 Themes include:

The Oral presentation – watch other presentations to see how professionals do it. Maybe Ted Talks which are a great example of getting a point across in a short time.

In presenting and writing it is important to keep people’s attention and make sure what you are describing has a flow.

The ethics and responsibilities of relationships.

How there are themes that run across all the modules (networking, communication, reflection). How as you become more familiar with the work your language changes. It is interesting to hear Module Threes because they use the language more than Module Ones!!

What are you feeling?

Please comment below.

Adesola

Thoughts on Feedback.

I have just been talking to people about their feedback to our feedback for Module Two !!! It sounds back and forth. But I see feedback as a two-way street. It is not about us telling you what to do in the disguise of feedback. For me feedback is about giving someone more ideas to think about or another way to look at the same thing. Therefore feedback on my feedback is just a response saying what it made you think of, it’s a discussion. It is not a about defending something but about walking together through an idea. Often in the past you may have been given ‘corrections’ as ‘feedback’ but I think they are different things. Corrections are one-way, feedback is two-way.

Here is something I recently wrote with a colleague about feedback in the dance classes.

What do you think? Feedback in the comments below!!

“At the beginning of our inquiry we were interested in exploring how students received ‘feedback’. We thought this would involve discovering more about the forms and ways feedback can be communicated to students, particularly how a climate of negative feedback can be avoided in the classroom.

However, as we carried out the research we realized that merely looking at how feedback is communicated constructs feedback as one directional.

We questioned whether we had been placing enough importance on the notion that feedback can be transactional.  Following John Dewey, we take the term transactional to indicate dynamic, co-created relationships and environments (Dewey 2008).

We realized that how feedback is communicated is significant, of course, but the means by which it is recognized as feedback by students, and how it is responded to is of equal bearing. This led us to consider the importance of students’ (and teachers’) critical thinking in our classrooms, as we felt student responses to feedback is as important as the action of giving it. By critical thinking we are suggesting skills of evaluation that allow for synthesis of ideas and support the ability to have shifts in perception. Particularly, for our students to develop the analytical skills to let go of an essentialist approach to their perception of themselves as dancers, and instead critically challenge their habitual movements and notions of what dance can be. Thus we see critical thinking as supporting the co-construction and permeability of a transactional approach to feedback.”

(You can read the Whole thing in the MDX on-line library, here is the citation  Akinleye, Adesola & Rose Payne (2016) “Transactional Space: Feedback, critical thinking, and learning dance technique”, Journal of Dance Education, Vol.16 Iss: 4, pp.144-148, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15290824.2016.1165821

DOI: 10.1080/15290824.2016.1165821?

Feedback you Module Two submissions

Just a note to think about: You are asked to start Module Three by sending a response to your feedback from Module Two. You need to send your Advisor, your inquiry plan with where you have changed or developed things as a response to your feedback highlighted (maybe in red type). Then the paragraph that is your response to feedback would be at the beginning and indicate the pages where you had made changes that demonstrated your thinking about and developing-on from the feedback . 

The paragraph is not just so you say you know you were ‘wrong’ or something like that!!! It is about what the feedback has made you think and where you are developing the inquiry process in response. This is part of the inquiry already because it is about how you think more deeply about the inquiry and therefore the topic. 

The goal is getting to know the questions, finding the depth in them not having something perfect. There is no 'perfect' in a moving interactive approach to the lived experience. 

Adesola

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Feedback and First Tuesday SKYPE

Staring back on Module Two and Three you will have and feedback from your last module along with your grade. The feedback is a starting point to begin this terms module. With Those people starting Module Three this is particularly important.

The feedback you would have got for Module Two is directly about the inquiry process you are about to start. Module Threes you are asked to begin by responding to this feedback. Make your response direct to the feedback. You could cut and paste what the feedback says and directly respond under it. You can go through each point like this:

From feedback sheet “Interviews: You  state you are not looking to facilitate them answering your question. You are interested in what their experiences are (as you say qualitative approach). Therefore, to compare their answers it is easier to ask them in the same format. Different approaches to your interview method support different responses. How would you compare response if the difference has been created by how you asked the questions? Please respond to this in your ‘response to Module Two feedback’ document.”

Response: I re-read Smith (2005) chapter on interviews techniques. I had been interested in using different techniques because it seemed they would all create interesting different answers and I wanted a range of answers. But thinking about my inquiry I realised I was planning to  force the answers to be different by making the questions different. I need to conduct the interviews in a similar way and look for the different in the answers as part of the analysis I do. I am realising the analysis part of the inquiry is actually more work and time than the data collection. I think I got a bit carried away with the data collection designs and I have decided to keep it simpler. Therefore, I will be using semi-structured interviews with all the interviewees. I will be beginning each interview with the same set of three prompt questions.”

Try to answer/ address all the feedback through a clear response to the points made. Remember you don’t have to just do what the feedback suggests. You are responding to it. If you do not want to change something as the feedback suggests explain why and what you thinking is about it further.

What do you think?

Looking forward to reading your comment below.

Also next Tuesday is our first Tuesday of the Month Group skype chat. (Tuesday October 4th)

If you would like to join we have am and pm sessions.

am = 10am (in London time)

pm = 6:30pm (in London time)

Please indicate which you would like to join in the comment below.

Adesola