Sunday 2 November 2008

Feedback Report

I was very pleased by my feedback report, and there's a trap in itself.

Firstly there were no units that I absolutely have to cover - a nice massage to my ego there.

Secondly the feedback from my raters was broadly the same as my own responses, with very few gaps between their opinions and mine. If anything my raters were more positive that I was - but I'd guess that would be the experience of most people who go through this process - teachers tend to be their own biggest critic.

Thirdly I'm exctited about the routemap to come - it's nice to be told what I need to learn.

However the trap is that the rating is just a snapshot of where I am at the moment. Within a small school, my colleagues (from whom I chose my raters) know me very well within our immediate context and their opinions will be coloured by the circumstances and conversations that took place last half term, just as mine will.

[It's interesting that one of the questions with the biggest difference in opinion was the one about whether I like to learn on my own. Answering that question on my own, as I did late at night on the computer and enjoying the process of rating myself 'on my own' of course I gave a more positive response than maybe I should have. My raters who can see me learning at school and never see my on my own (because otherwise I wouldn't be on my own) obviously rated me less highly - I wonder if other colleagues have experienced this anomaly with this or other questions.]

So the trap is to let yourself get pigeon-holed by the report. I must remember that humans are much bigger than any psychological profile or rating assessment.

Remember that there are more possible connections between synapses in the brain than there are atoms in the universe.

So the routemap must not become a railroad nor a strait-jacket. I must not limit my learning, but I must also be detremined to do the learning that is recommended, and not skim it or bypass it.

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