Requesting formative feedback from learners

Formative feedback is crucial for your ongoing development as an instructor.

Asking for formative feedback from your learners gives you and your learners opportunities to achieve two outcomes:

  • engage in reflective practice around the teaching/learning exchange
  • develop proficiency in giving and receiving feedback, so it becomes another learning tool

Use the following four-step strategy as a guide. Customize the wording to meet your own pedagogical needs and personality.

Four-step strategy for requesting feedback from learners

1. Preamble

Begin with a short explanation that defines formative feedback and indicates its value. For example:

As many of you know, my goal is to facilitate your learning in the area of _____. To help me most effectively meet your learning needs, I am requesting your formative feedback. This is feedback you provide, while you are still learners in this class. It will enable me to learn what I am doing that contributes to or gets in the way of your learning, and it will enable you to make suggestions we may be able to implement.

Thank you for reflecting on your learning experience in this class and providing your comments. You will receive a summarized version in the next class and an opportunity to discuss them.

You will also have the opportunity to provide summative feedback in the form of learner evaluations at the end of this course.

2. General instructions for your learners

For this feedback exercise do the following:

  1. Separate the content you are learning from the actual learning process.
  2. Focus on the learning process.
  3. Use descriptive, rather than judgmental phrases to express your views.
  4. Provide your feedback in terms of "more" or "less".

For example, if you say, "this class is great!!" I'm glad, but I don't know why, nor how to replicate what makes it great. I will find it more effective if you say, something like:

  • I generally understand concepts better when you use anecdotes to explain them. Please use more stories.
  • Could you assign fewer readings prior to class? I find it difficult to understand them until I have more context.
  • I understand abstract material better when we work with it in teams. Can we have more team exercises and fewer individual ones?

In other words, if I know what is helpful to your learning, I can try to keep doing it.

If I know what hinders your learning, I can try to change it, or at least provide a rationale.

3. Suggested questions

Once you have determined the material or instructional strategy that you want feedback on (i.e., a precise section just studied, a discussion, written feedback on assignments, level of intellectual challenge or clarity of explanations), ask your learners to reflect on that material and respond to the following three questions:

  1. What enhances your learning?
  2. What impedes your learning?
  3. What suggestions do you have for improving our teaching/learning exchange?

Ask learners to begin their sentences with the following phrases:

  1. I find it helpful when...
  2. I don't find it helpful when...
  3. I would like to make the following suggestion:

4. Follow-up

After reading the results, summarize the general meaning of the comments.

The next time you meet with the learners, either virtually or face-to-face, thank your learners for taking the time to reflect on their learning process and for providing the feedback.

Mention the changes that can or cannot be made, and explain how the changes will be implemented.

Using anonymous or signed feedback forms

There are several schools of thought on using anonymous or signed feedback forms.

If learners express reluctance to signing their feedback forms, you may consider options, such as anonymous feedback forms or online surveys.

You may also can remind learners who object to signed forms that the feedback that they receive regularly from instructors is not anonymous.

Finally, you can remind them that providing feedback to colleagues, superiors or employees is a valuable skill that will serve them well in work and life. They have an opportunity practice this skill within the safe environment of the classroom.