Self-Evaluation & Feedback

I gave a 2 day, training seminar on communication skills in the last week and stressed at the beginning of the first day that we would be using some tools to help the participants self-evaluate their progress.

The tools were mainly self-evaluation questionnaires and a video camera used extensively during the two days.

Filming was then followed by a debrief and peer assessment from other participants. I thought it important to underline the fact that whilst I could contribute to the feedback debriefing, my feedback was of the same value as feedback from another participant.

Further preparation was made up of an exploration of how to give feedback and work on the points raised and most importantly, how to accept feedback and double check the finer points of another's perception before reacting and putting actions together to work on issues raised.

It was made clear that self-evaluation was a skill that needed to hones and put in place to ensure continued development after the training seminar, where the bulk of the development would be achieved on an ongoing basis. It is also important to take into account that any feedback whether it emanates from self-evaluation or from a third party ammounts to pure perception free of solid truths, at a given point in time and nothing else. 

It is then our ability and skill to fully understand the issues in hand and then to react positively and proactively that triggers self-development and growth.

The value of feedback and self-evaluation springs from the trust and objectivity of the observer, whether it be oneself or otherwise 

Anyone who goes through any learning event will at some time need to know where they are in terms of where they have progressed and where they need to focus. 

Self-evaluation can be carried out in many ways to check the ammount of information that has been assimilated and the areas where work is needed in order to achieve observable and palpable differences. 

But I guess there is a limit to the validity of self-evaluationand - where that is, is open to debate. And how do we know when things are 'right'? How do we know when we are beating ourselves up over things that frankly don't need to be improved on? There must be a watershed at some point...

Ok, back to the seminar - lots of filming, lots of debriefs and feedback, lots of honest and open self-evaluation, return to the original questionnaire taken at the beginning of the seminar.

Then to the participants feedback of the seminar and the facilitator. 

The participants gave great feedback with some interesting comments and - to no great surprise, the statement "We would have benefitted from more feedback from the facilitator".

In their own, personal self-evaluations all of the participants stated that they could feel that they had progressed and identified areas that they feel they need to concentrate on. I am often loathe to go further in feedback than "I noticed that ...." or "I feel that you could ...." or "I thought that you handled x very well" etc. 

But it still seems that learners need more - perhaps I am the same too at times....