Training in the art of teaching inevitably involves practicing our teaching in the classroom and, most of the time, feedback from mentors or other qualified teachers. This process helps us to see what we’re doing well and where we need to improve. But negative feedback isn’t always easy to take when we’ve given everything we’ve got to a lesson. And it’s not always others who are giving us the feedback, we reflect and judge ourselves too.
How do we get the balance right between celebrating the positives and working on the gaps in our teaching skillset? And how can God’s gracious ways help us as we reflect and receive feedback?
Starter
1. Which one sounds most like you and why?
Person A: You have just finished an observed lesson where 90% of what you did was good. The children, for the most part, listened and did their work. You dealt well with instances of poor bahaviour. However, an incident with one girl who wanted to leave early has got you worried.
After having a difficult exchange, the girl did leave on time but loudly and disturbed students in other classes. As you reflect on your lesson, you feel shame that you couldn’t help that child well enough and you’re not looking forward to seeing any of the teachers whose classes were disturbed. You’ve forgotten about the good points of your lesson.
Person B: Your observed lesson has just finished. It wasn’t your best. There were sections that were less planned than you had thought, which made things difficult. While your mentor has praised some elements, they really wanted to ask questions about the choices you made in the planning progress.
You find yourself defending the sections that did go well and perhaps over-selling your good points slightly. You also try to explain the unplanned bits: your housemate’s birthday was yesterday and you had to celebrate with them so you didn’t have enough time to plan.
Person C: You are sat with your mentor after your observed lesson. Not everything was perfect but there are some areas that you can see you are improving in. Your mentor points out that you’ve used the same activity for feedback 5 times in a row now. When you explain that you would rather stay safe with a successful strategy than try something new, your mentor suggests that while you are training is the perfect time to have a go and make mistakes.
After the conversation, you immediately reject the idea of doing anything that might cause a mistake. Your thoughts swing from focusing on the praise your mentor gave you to wondering if you should leave teaching. After all, being an improving teacher isn’t enough, you want to be outstanding, or not a teacher at all.
Going Deeper
It’s not nice discussing what we’ve done poorly or where we’ve made mistakes, but is helpful so that we can improve. This is especially when we’re learning a skill, which we do for the whole of our teaching lives!
We know God’s grace makes an incredible difference to every area of our lives. This includes how we feel, think and respond to the quality of our teaching. When we’re observed, these feelings often become more acute.
2. Have a look at the following verses from Ephesians. Once you’ve read each one, discuss what difference the truths here could make to the people described above.
- Everything comes from God – ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’ Ephesians 2:10
- He knows we will fail – ‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.’ Ephesians 2:4-5
- God has made our identity secure – ‘You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.’ Ephesians 2:12-13
Reflect
3. What do you find hardest about being observed?
4. Are there heart attitudes or thought patterns on this theme which could be transformed by God's grace?
5. How might seeing God change you in this area affect how you interact with others at school?