Accept Feedback You Don't Want to Hear

What I Learned In School Today: Accept feedback, especially if it’s not what you want to hear.

I mentioned in a previous post that this past Monday was a professional development day. Overall, I was happy with the quality of the professional learning presented and feel that teachers gained a lot from the sessions. The teachers seemed engaged and the amount of time teachers were asked to be passive recipients of lectures and slideshows was limited.

A standard practice in our district is to ask participants in professional learning sessions to complete surveys after the in-service day to provide feedback on its quality. Today we received the feedback from Monday. Unfortunately, the feedback survey did not reveal the positive responses we had hoped to receive. While teachers spoke highly of the format of the day, several felt that the overall agenda did not meet the learning needs of the staff.

It can be difficult to receive feedback that isn’t all positive. The initial reaction is often to become defensive, explain away the responses, and devalue the results. Of course this is not productive and doesn’t lead to growth. If you ask for feedback, you must be prepared to accept it, especially if it’s not what you hoped to hear. You must learn from the feedback and continue to improve.