Adult learning principles - Feedback, First and last impressions

Feedback

Feedback gives learners an indication of their progress as they develop their knowledge and skills. It is also important to receive feedback from learners. Just as learners need to know how they are progressing, trainers need to know how learners feel about the learning activities. Mutual feedback helps develop positive learner-trainer relationships.

How to apply this principle

Give constructive feedback. Adult learners often lack self-confidence and may have painful memories of their experiences at school. Therefore, it is important to use feedback that builds confidence and motivates learners by showing them that they are contributing and progressing. Remember, try to focus on what learners can do, rather than what they can't do!

Give immediate, ongoing, informal feedback. The more immediate the feedback, the more effective it tends to be. Constant communication and encouragement motivates learners and encourages them to 'hang in there' and continue their learning. It also lets them know you are taking an active interest in their learning, and allows you to 'keep your finger on the pulse' so you can monitor learners' needs more effectively.

Constructive feedback in between two lots of positive feedback

Read the text alternative

Use the sandwich effect. If you need to give constructive feedback, pad that feedback between two 'slices' of positive feedback.

Feedback works both ways. In each learning session, give learners opportunities to let you know how they are feeling about what they are doing. You may need to explain to learners from some other cultural backgrounds that this is an important part of the teaching/learning process.

It's important because it shows your openness to their opinions and allows you to monitor the effectiveness of your sessions and learning activities, and modify your future sessions to suit the needs of learners. If you seek feedback at the end of the course, you won't have the opportunity to respond to learners' needs.

Dos and don'ts

Do ...
	qualify any negative feedback that you need to give, e.g. 'That's an interesting suggestion Sara, but...'
	give constant feedback to individual learners, e.g. as you are walking around the classroom
	seek feedback at appropriate times throughout your lessons to gauge the effectiveness and appropriateness of your lessons and learning activities
	ask learners for feedback on how they are going with their learning. Consider the feedback questions you ask carefully, so you can direct the focus of the feedback from learners.
Don't ...
	use negative terms such as no, can't, wrong, mistake if there is another way of saying the same thing
	wait to the end of the lesson/the term to let the learners know how they are doing
	undermine the learners' confidence in you by calling for feedback that you do not intend to act upon/respond to
	use questions that do not give you specific information. For example, avoid using closed (yes/no) questions.

First and last impressions

Learners tend to remember best those things they have seen and heard first and last in a sequence.

So, the important things are the first and last impressions!

Remember the old teaching adage:

Tell the learners what they're going to learn.
Do the learning activities.
Tell the learners what they've learnt.

How to apply this principle

Remember that the first few minutes of each session are crucial, particularly at the beginning of a course. Tell the learners where they are going, why they are going there and how they are going to get there.

Similarly, at the end of the session, re-visit with the learners where they have been, what they have achieved and where they will go next.

TIP

Sometimes it can be counter-productive to give learners too much information about the learning objective, especially if there is a chance that it might generate negative feelings. For example, many people may 'switch off' when they are told they will be doing fractions.

With this in mind, it may be better to focus on the task/activity that provides the context for the learning objective, rather than the underlying learning objective itself. For example, you might tell learners instead that you will be discussing how to cut cakes into equal parts to share in class.

Dos and don'ts

Do ...
	give a preview or overview at the beginning of the session
	summarise/recap on key points at appropriate times during the session. This helps to break up the lesson into meaningful 'chunks'
	put some thought into how you are going to introduce the topic and how you are going to finish off
	remind the learners of the sequence in which they have learned things
	structure (chunk) and try to integrate content to make it more accessible and meaningful
	ensure that learners understand the purpose of learning activities and any instructions relating to that activity.
Don't ...
	just launch into your lesson without informing learners of what they will be doing and why. For more on this, see Active learning and Meaningful materials
	always tell learners the topic (refer to the tip above).