The Power of Feedback

Last fathers day my kids gave me a heart rate monitor. As per usual I thanked them for their thoughtfulness. The fascinating thing (since I started wearing it!) has been the impact it has had on my exercise regime. Once I was aware of my heart rate I was able to adjust the intensity of my exercise to keep it within my target zone (go here for a cool little target heart rate calculator). As a result my exercise has been more focussed and I have got fitter faster.

Feedback is critical to anyone (or any group) who seeks to improve or change.

Hattie and Timperley in their paper The Power of Feedback provide a model of feedback for student learning. Their model suggests that there are 3 questions central to effective feedback:

• Where am I going? (a goal focus)
• How am I going? (progress)
• Where to next? (feedforward or next steps)

These questions work at four levels:

• task level (how well are the tasks performed or understood)
• process level (the processes required to achieve the tasks)
• self-regulation level (my growth as an independent learner)
• self level (personal evaluations of my worth in relation to the above)

The level at which feedback is applied is critical to its effectiveness. In general the best feedback moves from task to process to self-regulation level, and praise at a self level is often of little effect and sometimes has a negative effect on improvement. Other factors for effective feedback include timing, clarity, amount, compatibility with students prior knowledge, and level of threat (best when low) to the students sense of self.

I am sure that this model does not only apply to students. It is a useful model for all of us regarding the feedback we give and receive. The big idea is that are energised when we are able to identify the discrepancy between our performance and our target and know how to close the gap (or at least a part of it). We get hooked on improvement. Feedback is that critical piece that enables us to 'grasp' the discrepancy and put pressure on it.

Doing the basics well is a critical part of sound leadership. Providing and receiving effective feedback to and from members of our team is one of those basics.

So....when did you last give or receive some effective feedback?