麻豆原创

Few understand as well as Eleanor Drago-Severson how a single word, 鈥渇eedback,鈥� can disrupt the moral fabric of a teacher or leader otherwise possessed of strong heart and mind.  

Feedback in the eyes of school leaders is a constructive means to evaluate faculty performance in the classroom. But many also see it as 鈥渢he third rail of leadership鈥� because teachers on the receiving end of evaluations often hear 鈥渇eedback鈥� as a polite word for 鈥渃riticism鈥� 鈥� and criticism can mean a threat to one鈥檚 livelihood.

It鈥檚 an understandable conflation 鈥� but one that can be avoided, contend Drago-Severson, Professor of Education in the and 麻豆原创 alumna Jessica Blum-DeStefano, a Bank Street College of Education instructor. In fact, in their 2016 book, Tell Me So I Can Hear You: A Developmental Approach to Feedback for Educators (Harvard Education Press), Drago-Severson and Blum-DeStefano argue that, through a better understanding of basic human nature, feedback can be flipped to become a force for positive change. And as the book has emerged as a landmark in the field, the two have since been offering Leadership Institutes for School Change through Teachers College鈥檚 office, focusing on a developmental approach to feedback and supporting adult development.

鈥淔eedback given in a context that can hold a person well can actually help someone develop greater cognitive, emotional, interpersonal and intrapersonal capacities,鈥� said Drago-Severson, whom 鈥孒arvard cognitive scientist Howard Gardner has called 鈥渙ne of our most insightful experts on the development of adult educational leaders,鈥� praising her 鈥渁bility to move back and forth comfortably between powerful ideas and promising practices.鈥�

Tell Me So I Can Hear You outlines practical applications of theoretical ideas imparted to Drago-Severson by her own teacher and academic mentor, the Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan, known as the forefather of 鈥渃onstructive-developmental theory.鈥�

In work published in 1982, Kegan determined that adults employ four essential meaning making systems, which Drago-Severson refers to as 鈥渨ays of knowing鈥� to 鈥渕ake sense of their work, lives and relationships鈥� and 鈥渟ee and interpret their world.鈥�

The four ways 鈥� 鈥渋nstrumental,鈥� 鈥渟ocializing,鈥� 鈥渟elf-authoring鈥� and 鈥渟elf-transforming鈥� 鈥� inform an individual鈥檚 self-perception and, therefore, function as his or her lens for viewing the universe.    

In their book, Drago-Severson and Blum-DeStefano call for implementing constructive-developmental theory as a lens for evaluating teachers (and others who work in non-educational environments as well), asking education leaders to recognize the importance of their own and each teacher鈥檚 ways of knowing 鈥� or, in layman鈥檚 terms, to fold an understanding of where a teacher is coming from into evaluations of classroom effectiveness. 鈥淔eedback must take into account the different developmental capacities of both feedback givers and receivers,鈥� they write.

For example, an evaluator who employs a developmental approach will likely recognize how a 鈥渞ule-oriented鈥� teacher who falls into the 鈥渋nstrumental way of knowing鈥� category might respond differently to feedback than a teacher with a  鈥渟ocializing鈥� way of knowing who defines him or herself through the judgment of others.   

鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 think of feedback as a process, but rather as an event that happens once a year,鈥� said Drago-Severson. Typically their expectations are negative, 鈥渂ut feedback can be positive. And when you bring developmental intentionality into the process it helps to understand that people need to receive feedback in different ways. Some people want to get it straight, right to the point, no sugar coating. But that doesn鈥檛 work for other people. In the final analysis, people orient to the world in qualitatively different ways鈥攁nd, therefore, we need to differentiate the way we offer feedback to accommodate this.鈥�

Tell Me So I Can Hear You also dispels the further misconception that feedback is a one-way conversation.

鈥淥ur editor kept asking, 鈥榃hy are you talking so much about listening? Giving feedback is about talking,鈥欌�� said Drago-Severson. But feedback 鈥渋s also about listening,鈥� she recalls replying. 鈥淵ou can give a person all the feedback in the world. But they鈥檒l do nothing with it if you鈥檙e not listening to what that person needs.鈥�

The authors鈥� research with educators powerfully supports that argument.

Asked to recall helpful evaluations, many of the respondents cited feedback they received long ago as student teachers or at the outset of their careers.

But time did nothing to diminish the memory of what made the feedback memorable. As one educator told Drago-Severson and Blum-DeStefano, 鈥淚 knew (the evaluator) had my best interest at heart. It may have been hard to hear. But I knew the (evaluator) really had my back and respected me.鈥�

And that, says Drago-Severson, is the power of employing constructive-developmental theory in the context of feedback, and of 鈥渕eeting people where they are.鈥�
鈥� Steve Giegerich

Published Friday, Dec 15, 2017