Giving feedback in the WR2 curriculum serves multiple purposes for the students, the faculty, and the administration.
For the student, it provides an opportunity to reflect on parts of the curriculum that were beneficial as well as to provide insights about areas that may need improvement. Through this process, students hone their skills in providing feedback that is specific, constructive, and professional.
For the faculty, feedback provides information that will help them grow and develop as educators. Moreover, this feedback provides essential documentation on their performance that they can use for promotion.
For the administrator, we value feedback as a chance to gain important insights on our curriculum. We strive for excellence; and in this regard, we are all learners as we recognize that improvement comes with continuous reflection and refinement.
Guidelines for Giving Feedback
The standards for giving feedback in our curriculum are as follows.1
- Feedback is information intended to improve behavior, not a judgment of its worth.
- Feedback is based on specific, firsthand observations, not hearsay.
- Feedback should be in constructive, nonjudgmental, neutral language.
- Feedback should deal with specific situations and real examples, not generalizations.
- Feedback should be limited to things that can feasibly be changed.
Simply put, we ask for feedback to be timely, purposeful, specific, and non-emotional. When giving feedback, students are asked to write comments that are constructive, highlighting strengths, areas for improvement, and possible suggestions for improvement. They are also asked to write professionally, as if they are having a one on one conversation between colleagues; “Evaluate others in the way that you would like to be evaluated.”
1Thanks, in part, to the ideas of Klara Papp, Jack Ende and Elaine Dannefer.