Snapshot
Type of Interaction: Student-to-instructor
Type of Course: Online, hybrid, face-to-face
I’ve posted previously regarding the importance of providing opportunities for reflection when crafting learning experiences for our students. Reflection, however, is not just for the learners! As instructors, reflection plays an important role in helping us improve the courses we teach. We coach faculty to give students several opportunities during a course to reflect and provide feedback on their experience in the course at that moment, which in turn provides instructors with opportunities to reflect on whether and how to respond. However, it wasn’t until recently that I was faced with the question: “…but are we asking them the right questions?”
Critically Reflective Practice
Several years ago, instructional designers at Texas State collaborated with adult education faculty on the development of an online graduate degree. As part of that collaboration, I had the pleasure of meeting Simone C.O. Conceição, Department Chair and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education Department of Administrative Leadership. Simone spent a few days with the adult education faculty and members of my team. We discussed several important topics, but one in particular stood out for me: the importance of critically reflective practice.
For several years I had urged faculty to poll their students at various points in their courses to help shed light from the students’ point of view on how they were personally experiencing the course. I helped instructors see how gaining insight into their students’ experiences throughout the course, rather than at the end of the course, could create opportunities for valuable teaching moments and the strengthening of connections between the students and their instructor. What I learned from Simone was that this was only the tip of the iceberg.
Simone coached us on the importance of truly making the effort to see our students’ experience through the lens of their own eyes. To that end, she introduced us to the Critical Incident Questionnaire.
Asking the Right Questions
The Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) was developed by Stephen Brookfield, a professor and researcher in adult education who holds the John Ireland Endowed Chair at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. He developed a 5-question survey that focuses on critical moments or elements of a learning experience. The CIQ questions are as follows:
- At what moment in the class this week were you most engaged as a learner?
- At what moment in the class this week were you most distanced as a learner?
- What action that anyone in the room took this week did you find most affirming or helpful?
- What action that anyone in the room took this week did you find most puzzling or confusing?
- What surprised you most about the class this week?
Brookfield identifies several benefits of asking learners these questions on a regular basis, including:
- It can alert the instructor to problems before they become disasters.
- It gives the instructor accurate information to consider before taking action.
- It helps learners develop their own reflective thinking.
- It builds trust between the student and the instructor.
- It demonstrates a willingness for responsiveness on the part of the instructor.
Furthermore, Brookfield reports that student feedback on the CIQ motivated his own reflection as an instructor that lead in turn to improvements to his own course (Brookfield, 1995).
Considering these questions was very eye-opening for me. While we had been coaching faculty on the importance of gathering their perceptions throughout the course, we had been using questions that didn’t lead to an adequate depth of understanding. We’d been asking questions like, “what do you like most about the course so far” and “what things would you change about this course if you could.” While these questions garnered useful feedback from students, the level of reflection and depth of their responses showed a more surface-level thought process.
Conclusion
Since learning about this approach, I have coached several faculty to consider trying the Critical Incident Questionnaire with their classes. Some have used it as it was originally created, and some have modified it to fit a specific course. As with many activities that involve reflection, students take their cue from the instructor regarding how much emphasis and time they should spend on the activity. As such, nearly all instructors reported that it was valuable to discuss the questionnaire with their students before its first use and to share how their input would be used to make the course better. Finally, part of responsiveness is a willingness to suspend assumptions and bias and try to see the learners’ experience through their own eyes. Taking the time and effort to do gather and reflect upon student feedback and using what is learned in that experience to improve our courses and our instruction, is a practice that can only serve to benefit our students.
References
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.