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This page provides resources to help faculty offer meaningful feedback and support one another as peers during the appraisal process.
Find appraisal forms and a link to the union contract on the District website.
- Send a warm email introducing yourself and explaining the process.
- Set up the meeting time when both of you can focus on the interaction and be prepared with the forms and contract should the faculty member ask any questions about the process or forms.
- Prior to the meeting, be sure and read through the previous appraisal documents (if applicable), so that you can include those in the Pre-Appraisal form. Also, look at the syllabi that the faculty member uploaded to the Sharepoint Drive.
- Begin the meeting with some discussion of the value of appraisals (i.e. growth mindset, learning, curiosity, confidentiality, collegiality).
- Ask Coaching questions:
- What did you learn from your last appraisal cycle? What else? How has your teaching changed as a result?
- What would you like me to pay attention to during my observation (i.e., student engagement, instructions, class organization)? What areas would you most like feedback on?
- In what ways do you already excel in your work?
- What is the biggest challenge for you in your work? Why?
- What steps do you need/want to take to meet this challenge?
- What support do you need/want from me or others as you work to meet this challenge?
- Is there anything else?
- End the meeting with a time for the observation
AWE Coaching Questions
The notion of asking AWE (And What Else?) coaching questions comes from the book The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. The idea is that you ask open-ended questions intended to allow the mentee (or appraisee) to come to their own solutions and recognize their own feelings or decisions. They are seemingly simple, but often we are in such a hurry that we forget to ask them.- Learn more by reading this short article: .
- You can also become a TEACH Coach Mentor, where you can practice the questions and learn from Communication Studies instructor and coaching expert, Meg Farrell.
Use the BEAN Method
The BEAN method is focused on viewing instruction in multiple segments鈥擝efore, Engagement, Assessment, and Next Steps. This framework helps us pose questions to push our thinking as we watch our colleagues with their students.
Before: What does the instructor do before instruction starts?
- What does the instructor do to welcome students at the start of class?
- What does the instructor do before the specific lesson begins? (i.e. how does the instructor activate/welcome students鈥� prior knowledge on the topic; how does the instructor connect learning to student lives?)
- How does the instructor cue students about upcoming learning? (i.e., agenda, bulleted list, objectives)
- How do the students respond to the instructor?
Engagement: How does the instructor engage students?
- What strategies/ techniques does the instructor use to get students engaged in the topic? (i.e. small group, large group, think-pair-share, case studies, Kahoot)
- What evidence is there that the instructor connects with individual students?
- How do the students respond to the method of engagement?
Assessment: How does the instructor ensure learning?
- How does the instructor assess that students have learned the material? (i.e., does instructor stop and check learning throughout the lesson? Does the instructor give instructional feedback? Does the instructor provide opportunities for students to check their own learning?)
- How do students demonstrate their learning at the completion of the instruction? What do the students respond to the assessment?
Next Steps: What will you share with the instructor?
- What questions do you have about the lesson, students, or instructional strategies that were missing from your observation?
- What did your experience today teach you about instruction, or what ideas did it provoke for you?
- What suggestions might you have to help this instructor ensure engaged learning for students?
Adopt a growth orientation
Providing meaningful feedback begins with a growth-focused orientation. When feedback is specific, actionable, and framed as an opportunity to grow, it feels more supportive and constructive鈥攅ven when the message is challenging. When we approach the evaluation process with curiosity, care, and a shared commitment to improvement, the experience becomes more impactful for everyone involved鈥攅levating teaching, supporting professional growth, and ultimately enhancing student learning.
As faculty, we're in a unique position to support one another鈥檚 growth. The tips below offer practical ways to give feedback that鈥檚 thoughtful, effective, and strengthened by collaboration.
Reflect before you start
Meaningful feedback is essential for growth. As an evaluator, your role is to guide your colleague, not just assess them. We鈥檝e all experienced evaluations with vague comments like 鈥済reat job鈥� or 鈥渓ooks good,鈥� which feel positive at first, but upon reflection feel unsupportive and disheartening. Teachers who practice reflection focus on how to improve and enhance the student experience. Similarly, evaluators who reflect actively aim to coach teachers, asking insightful questions and identifying both strengths and areas for improvement in each course.
In your reflection prior to entering the meaningful feedback space, consider the following:
- Examine your own feelings, experience, perspective: Before providing feedback, think about any biases you might have. What are your own experiences with feedback- have they been positive or negative? Are you examining everything from the perspective of the user (i.e. the students, your colleagues)?
- Consider how you will create a safe space for honest feedback: In-person feedback sessions tend to be more welcoming, although if Zoom is your only option, be sure to have your camera on and place your head in the upper-middle part of the screen so it appears that you are looking the other person in the eye.
- Always work from compassion and empathy: Hearing feedback can be challenging, especially if it is asking you to do things that might be new to you. Therefore, be empathetic and remind yourself that by giving truly meaningful feedback, you are exhibiting care and compassion for your colleague.
Be aware of your verbal and nonverbal messages
Much of what we communicate is hidden. It is not so much WHAT we say, but HOW we say it, including how we are carrying our body when we say it. Start with a smile and use the person鈥檚 name to welcome and invite collaboration. Being aware of what you want to say and how you say it before you even start will typically lead to a more satisfying experience.
- Nonverbal communicates more. How are you sitting? Are your arms crossed, or are they relaxed at your side or on the table? Do you have a frown on your face, or is your face relaxed and open with a smile? Are you leaning far back in a way that communicates distance and disinterest, or are you leaning in as a means of communicating collaboration and willingness to engage?
- Know your audience. How might they might best receive the feedback you are giving? Can you provide some great examples of what you are suggesting? What might they like to know about first?
- Consider power dynamics: Does one of you possess more power or perceived power than the other one? How might that change the tenor or implications of the feedback? How might you work to even the playing field so that you are two people with the shared goal of growth?
- Decide in advance what to say. You can practice what you might say before you enter the conversation, maybe in front of the mirror or with your pet. Observe your body language and think about how your body reacts when you are practicing. The more you think about what you want to say, the easier it will be to give the meaningful feedback in the moment.
Practice non-judgemental communication strategies
- Use the feedback sandwich: Offer one positive statement, then provide advice or ask a question, and end with another positive statement
- Say what you see, and be curious. Remind yourself that there are often things that are unseen, but that you might judge without knowing about them. So, be curious. Try something like, 鈥淚 saw that (state the observable behavior, content, or language). Can you tell me more about that?鈥� By being curious, you might discover the thing you were looking for is actually already there.
- Refer to instruction, not the instructor. When providing meaningful feedback, it is important that you focus on the behavior, not the person. Work hard to focus on what you can actually observe and not make judgements about what you think you are seeing. This can be challenging, but 测辞耻鈥檝别 got this!
- Keep student success your focus. Remember that all instructors want the best for their students. Framing your feedback from the student perspective will invite the instructor to view the feedback as a way to improve the student experience in their course.
Use cognitive coaching principles
The cognitive coaching model is a research-based, highly reflective form of coaching that supports individuals to reflect metacognitively on their own practices. Part of giving meaningful feedback is helping the person you are observing arrive at their own conclusions. You can do this by listening more than speaking and asking the following probing questions.
- What new information are you walking away with today? What else?
- What conclusions or outcomes have you reached? What else?
- What do you see as your biggest challenge as an instructor? Why?
- What steps do you want to take next? How?
- What support do you need from me or others?
Tips for giving challenging feedback
Try these strategies for delivering challenging feedback in a way that will be compassionate, supportive, and meaningful to your colleague.
- Consider an extra set of eyes and ears. There is nothing wrong with asking another person to sit in the feedback session to ensure that the experience is supportive and constructive. If you are completing a faculty evaluation, the Dean can often be helpful to everyone, reflecting back what was said and offering suggestions for future work.
- Provide specific, actionable areas of growth and include resources for support. The more specific you can be about the observed behavior or instruction, and the more examples you provide, the easier it will be for the person to receive and act on the challenging feedback. It is also important to provide targeted resources where they could go to learn how to improve. This is especially true if we want to be able to reexamine what we observed during a later observation.
- Collaborate to construct a growth plan. Change and growth can be scary to do alone, especially if one has been doing the same thing for many years without meaningful feedback or invitation to change and grow. Part of your role in giving feedback is to help the person reflect on what changes they would like to make. Therefore, don鈥檛 leave the feedback session without working on a growth plan together. How will the person work on changing the behavior or instruction?
Challenging feedback can be a powerful tool for growth鈥攂oth for your colleague and yourself. 驰辞耻鈥檝别 got the skills, and 测辞耻鈥檝别 got this.