Feedback: The Highest Form of Agape Love?
Transformative teaching changes us—teachers, students, and our community. Part of that transformation begins in belonging, which has ameliorative roots in radical presence—seeing and being with one another–which is a kind of agape love. When we embrace agape love, that unconditional, selfless love that seeks only the highest good for others, which in turn, brings forth the highest good in us we set the stage for transformation. What does this have to do with feedback? Keep reading….
Authentic educational equity flourishes through the agape lens, and one of the building blocks of that growth is feedback: both the feedback we give students and the feedback they give us. We have long been proponents of Specific, Actionable, and Kind feedback which deconstructs the “compliment sandwich” formula. More recently, Wharton psychologist Adam Grant has provided a more direct and effective method for delivering feedback: preface it with the sentence “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”
Creating space for students to share feedback on your current courses can support greater student satisfaction and self-reported learning in your courses while also providing you with rich feedback about the course (Hurney et al., 2014). Consider one of the following structures for this purpose:
- Share the Furman-piloted mid-term survey of teaching behaviors that incorporates student reflection on their own learning.
- Request a Small Group Instructional Feedback session or peer observation with the FDC team or one of our peer coaches
At a workshop series last February, Furman faculty generated “conversation hearts” to capture their highest aims in teaching (see image above). What does your teaching conversation heart say? How do you deliver that message and invite your students to share their learning conversation hearts with you? For fun, or if you’d like to level up your heart game, consider enfolding your message in an origami heart.
While there is an “official” holiday related to love right around the corner, we hope you find many ways to enjoy agape love each and every day.