Abstract
This experiential exercise uses feedback from peers to develop students’ classroom contributions and build a classroom climate that encourages active engaging and learning. It is best suited for courses that require active classroom participation, but works well in any format, traditional and online, and with any level of students. The activity takes a strengths-based approach, anchored in positive psychology, appreciative inquiry, and positive organizational scholarship, to guide peer feedback about classroom contributions. It asks students to provide appreciative and evaluative feedback to their teammates and discuss ways they can be more effective contributors in the classroom. This activity has several important learning objectives for students: (1) describe specific behaviors associated with effective contributions in the classroom, (2) gain awareness of how others view their classroom contributions, and (3) use appreciative and evaluative feedback to improve their contributions in the future.
Keywords
In courses that rely on experiential and active learning methods, instructors strive for high-quality contributions from their students. Students learn by actively engaging in class. They contribute to their peers’ learning by sharing their observations, experiences, and perceptions, which helps others see situations from different perspectives. Emphasizing classroom contributions rather than simply verbal participation elevates the class to higher levels of learning by creating conditions where students create new insights, share knowledge, and assist others in understanding the topics (Gioia, 1987).
Disagreement exists about whether and how instructors should assess classroom participation (e.g., Gilson, 1994; Mello, 2010; Paff, 2015), but grading participation and valuing it highly is a norm in management classrooms across the United States. Some argue that instructors should not grade participation because it is subjective (Bean & Peterson, 1998) and can create an environment where students compete for “air time” (Litz, 2003). Another concern is that grading participation favors extroverted students whose personalities make them more willing to verbalize their learning (Bean & Peterson, 1998; Gilson, 1994). Yet, these conditions make assessments of classroom contributions especially relevant as developmental opportunities for students. Many performance evaluations in the professional world are similarly subjective, impressionistic, and biased (Mello, 2010). Often students enter the workforce without much practice navigating performance evaluation processes. They can gain valuable insights by hearing others’ perceptions of their classroom contributions.
This article presents an activity that uses feedback from peers to develop students’ classroom contributions and build a climate that encourages students’ active learning and engaging in class. It takes a strengths-based approach and emphasizes feedback as learning opportunities. Peers offer helpful information that can clarify and motivate students’ future contributions. Even when instructors explain what they mean by high-quality participation, and provide specific examples of contributions that meet or exceed these standards, students benefit from direct feedback about their performance (Sanger, 2021). Students appreciate the opportunity to improve their contributions as the semester progresses.
Feedback for Learning and Acceptance
Feedback from others is essential for career development (Gilligan, 1979; Hall & Associates, 1996; London, 2003; Parker et al., 2008), but employees routinely complain that they do not get effective feedback (Cannon & Witherspoon, 2005). Some managers do not know how to give feedback (London, 2003; Stone & Heen, 2014), resist sharing negative news (London, 2003; Zenger & Folkman, 2014), or are biased or inaccurate in their assessments. However, even when managers provide helpful and accurate feedback, employees disregard it when it threatens their self-image (London, 1995). Employees can control how they respond to feedback, so attempts to improve feedback processes often focus on developing receivers’ skills (Cannon & Witherspoon, 2005; Stone & Heen, 2014).
Receivers of feedback have two primary needs, learning and acceptance, which often exist in tension (Stone & Heen, 2014). If receivers ignore feedback that does not accept them for who they are, they lose opportunities to learn. Students benefit from managing this tension, so they can use feedback more effectively. Adopting a growth mindset, which involves seeing their talents as the product of hard work and input from others rather than innate characteristics or fixed accomplishments (Dweck, 2006), provides a way for students to do this. In addition, peer feedback that incorporates appreciation with evaluation helps students use this information to improve.
Appreciative feedback allows students to learn and feel accepted. Appreciation is a form of feedback that stands in contrast to criticism (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1999). It expresses gratitude and identifies strengths (Roberts et al., 2005). It emphasizes the positive contributions that students make and shares the impact of these contributions on others. When peers notice a student’s contributions, the student feels valued and energized. If peers identify strengths of which a student is unaware or if they fail to notice strengths a student expects, both can be significant sources of learning. Appreciation satisfies students’ needs for acceptance (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987, 1999; Heen & Stone, 2014) and helps create a classroom climate characterized by trust and safety. In psychologically safe climates, students take interpersonal risks without fearing punishment (Edmondson, 2019), making learning more likely.
Evaluative feedback enables students to learn how their outcomes compare to objective standards and to others (Stone & Heen, 2014). Students need to learn how others rate their performance so that they can improve, especially in subjective areas like classroom contributions. When students meet or exceed standards, evaluative feedback validates their efforts and motivates future contributions. If students receive evaluations that are less positive than they expect, they benefit from analyzing them, understanding why, and adjusting to improve. A growth mindset helps students see negative feedback as a resource for learning and reminds them that with hard work, they can improve (Dweck, 2016). A safe climate makes it less likely that students will feel threatened by evaluation or negative feedback (Dweck, 2016; Grenny, 2015).
Description of the Activity: Peer Feedback About Classroom Contributions
This exercise takes a strengths-based approach and enables students to practice using evaluative and appreciative feedback from peers to improve their classroom contributions.
The specific learning objectives of this activity are for students to:
Describe specific behaviors associated with effective contributions in the classroom.
Gain awareness of how others view their classroom contributions.
Use appreciative and evaluative feedback to improve their contributions in the future.
Instructions for Conducting the Exercise in a Class of 75 Minutes
Prior to class, I assign Heen and Stone (2014) and Dweck (2016).
Discuss Classroom Contributions—2–5 Minutes
Remind students of the numerous ways that they make contributions in class (Online Appendix A).
Discuss Effective Feedback—5 Minutes
Cover the handout about effective feedback in Online Appendix B. Effective feedback includes appreciation for individuals’ effort and contributions, shows people where they stand, and highlights opportunities for improvement (Stone & Heen, 2014).
Provide Feedback for a Hypothetical Student—5–10 Minutes
Ask students to provide feedback for a hypothetical student (Online Appendix C) that exhibits behaviors in the excellent category on the guide. Instructors could create other exemplars to highlight other strengths or performance levels.
Give students 5 minutes to complete the feedback, and then discuss it for 5 minutes. It is helpful to compile students’ feedback using an online poll, so instructors display results immediately. Online Appendix D shares details about common responses. Often this seemingly clear-cut case will yield a range of responses. When there is disagreement, it is useful to remind students that feedback providers often interpret and apply standards differently, so it helps to build consensus about criteria before rating. Similarly, receivers can have different ideas about the expected standards. It is easy for students to get caught up debating this case. Instructors should note the tendency for people to make different assumptions about performance criteria, which then affects their assessments, and move on.
Ask Students to Self-Assess Their Classroom Contributions—0–10 Minutes
Students assess their own contributions. They complete the form in Online Appendix E and share concrete examples of their top contributions. They recommend ways that they can be more effective for the rest of the semester. To save time, instructors can ask students to complete this step as an assignment before class.
Have Students Complete the Feedback for Their Teammates—15–20 Minutes
Students provide the same feedback for their teammates using the forms in Online Appendix F. Given the nature of the activity, it works best to group students with people with whom they are already familiar. Putting students into pre-existing work groups of 3 to 5 may be most effective.
Students provide feedback on sheets of paper. When they finish, they exchange forms. Each student will have two to four sets of written feedback. If feedback is vague or unclear, they can ask their peers to explain and provide examples.
Use Feedback to Improve Their Contributions—5–10 Minutes
Ask students to reflect on the feedback that they received from their peers and compare it with their self-evaluation. There is a significant opportunity to learn when peers’ feedback does not align with a student’s self-evaluation. When peers’ feedback is more negative than their self-evaluation, students should seek to understand why. So too, students can learn when peers’ feedback is more positive than their self-evaluation especially when it calls attention to contributions that the student did not realize others valued.
Next, ask students to incorporate their peers’ feedback into their recommendations for improving for the rest of the semester. Students share one or two recommendations with their teams before debriefing with the entire class.
Instructors may have students reflect on their feedback in an assignment. An optional assignment is suggested in Online Appendix G.
Debrief—10–15 Minutes
To reinforce the learning objectives, instructors should ask students to share insights about their experience. Online Appendix H shares more detail.
1. What did you learn about effective classroom contributions today? Do you feel better prepared to contribute?
This question allows instructors to emphasize that each class (and organization) has different explicit and implicit criteria for performance. Feedback from others is essential for understanding how their performance compares with criteria. Routinely, students remain surprised that the criteria for contributions differ from other classes. Instructors should point out that students make assumptions based on their prior experiences that they bring to their current situations. If they saw disagreement in the fictional case, instructors can cite this example too. Students should not assume that new contexts are the same as prior contexts.
2. Did your peers’ feedback align with your self-evaluation? If not, do you understand why?
Students have the opportunity to learn when peers’ feedback does not align with their self-evaluation. When peers’ feedback is more negative than their self-evaluation, they may be reluctant to share it. Instructors could point out the tension that exists between recipients’ needs for learning and need for acceptance, and encourage students to try to understand discrepancies.
When peers’ feedback is more positive than the student’s self-evaluation, it provides powerful learning opportunities as well. Instructors can highlight how recipients’ needs for learning and acceptance are aligned in this situation. In both situations, students benefit from understanding the feedback.
3. In what ways are appreciative and evaluative feedback valuable for improving your classroom contributions?
Students’ answers will vary, which will highlight differences in the needs and preferences across receivers. Students generally express gratitude for appreciative feedback because it helps them feel valued. Instructors may point out that students (or professionals) who are well aware of the standards for performance may find appreciative feedback most helpful. Other students will vocalize their preference for “seeing where they stand” and knowing precisely what they need to do. Instructors may suggest that students may prefer evaluative feedback if they need additional clarifying information or additional guidance on standards.
A key takeaway is that, together, both types of feedback can be very effective. Students should seek out appreciative and evaluative feedback from multiple people. This method translates to any context from future classes to new workplaces.
Advice for Deploying the Activity
This exercise works best when students are motivated and able to provide valuable feedback to their teammates. Remind students that providing high-quality evaluative and appreciative feedback reflects positively on their own grade for classroom contributions. This reminder reinforces that classroom contributions go beyond simply speaking in class.
Variations
Instructors can use this exercise in any type of class, traditional or online, and in any format, synchronous or asynchronous. It is best suited to courses that emphasize active classroom contributions and discuss issues that do not have one “right answer.” Online Appendix I describes possible variations.
Conclusion
This exercise uses classroom contributions as a context to practice learning from feedback. It clarifies the specific behaviors that are valued in the classroom and provides students with feedback from peers about their contributions. Students see how appreciative and evaluative feedback work together to provide them with important information to guide their development. Students gain insights for improving the quality of their contributions not only in their current class but also in future classes and workplaces. Online Appendix J shares comments from students after engaging in this exercise.
Supplemental Material
sj-docx-1-mtr-10.1177_23792981221137866 – Supplemental material for Identifying and Building Strengths: An Experiential Exercise in Developing Classroom Contributions
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-mtr-10.1177_23792981221137866 for Identifying and Building Strengths: An Experiential Exercise in Developing Classroom Contributions by Mary B. Dunn in Management Teaching Review
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
References
Supplementary Material
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