Feedback Done Well - an answer as to why some clubs outperform others...

I enjoy learning about ways I can be a better coach, teacher, parent, and friend.  This year, I've picked up John Hattie's Visible Learning for Teachers @visiblelearning .  Hattie is a researcher from New Zealand who pulled together a meta analysis of meta analysis studies of teaching and learning influences and their effect on achievement.  Its ground breaking work, and creates an evidence based picture of the best bang for you buck in terms of things we do as coaches/educators.  His research resulted in an effect size for over 150 influences on achievement, things like, class size, student-teacher relationship, peer feedback, self assessment and teacher feedback.  What his research tells us is that some things are more important than others when it comes to things we do as coaches/teachers and their effect on how effectively students learn.

Feedback from a coach/teacher is in the top ten of the ranking of the most significant influences on student/athlete learning.  Here is a short video of some things to consider when giving feedback to learners:

For feedback to be effective coaches/teachers must have a good understanding of where the learners are and where they are meant to be.  You will find lots of technically brilliant coaches in communities all over, but perhaps the ability to give effective feedback is one of the key determinants of what we recognize as 'development hotbeds'.  Maybe hotbeds exist partly because the coaches there know how to give effective feedback.  Its one of the most important things we can do as coaches/teachers.

It starts with learners having a clear picture of the intended learning outcome and what the success criteria are.  For example, 'today we are working on double poling - success looks like this...' , 'give it a try...'.  Setting up learning for success is only one of the variables that help kids learn.  When they have a clear picture of what they are supposed to learn, they are much more likely to achieve it.  Creating clear learning intentions is key.  Without that, any feedback you give learners is done so in a vacuum - there is no context for feedback if it is all reactive.

Hattie identifies four types of feedback:
- task feedback -  this is feedback on a technical skill - 'here is our arm position at the initiation of a pole plant in a double pole; your arms are there, I want them here"
- process feedback - this is feedback on a strategy to help learn - 'when you learn to one skate, try to count to three while you balance on one foot'
- self regulation feedback - this is feedback to get a learner to reflect on how they've learned - 'how do you know if you are there...'
- self feedback - this is feedback about ability or effort - 'you are working really hard, keep it up, you'll get it...'

As coaches/teachers we need to understand clearly where we want our learners to go, and we need to be able to scaffold the learning so that they see the steps to get there.  This is done through - setting clear learning intentions and success criteria - then providing feedback to learners to help them master the skill.  For feedback to be effective, the learning task also needs to be challenging.  In the context of sport skill acquisition, this is pretty easy to facilitate - being a skilled skier is a challenging task.  Where is the learning going?...

As coaches/teachers we should aim for giving some progress feedback relative to the starting a finishing points - this feedback is the most crucial to learning and is offered in relation to a standard of performance, to prior performance or to success or failure in performing the task. It might look like, 'hey, your hand height looks at the right place at the initation of your pole plant, now i want to see them closer together...'.  According to Hattie, feedback needs to be rapid and constant and should address things like:
- clarifying and sharing the learning intentions and success criteria - e.g. 'hey kids, i'm looking for lots of ankle bend at the initation of your pole plant'
- engineering effective discussions, questions and learning tasks
- being the type of feedback that moves learning forward
- encouring learners to see themselves as the owners of their learning - e.g. ' you can figure this out, think about it, try it and let me know what you think...'
- activating learners as instructional resources for one another - e.g. 'hey, Karly does this really well, have her explain it to you...'

As coaches/teachers we need to   create a picture of what the next step looks like - and for each learner this will be somewhat different depending on their rate of skill acquisition.  We can also foster deeper understanding of skills by providing opportunities to look at a skill in a different way, or explaining it using different language e.g. talk 'propulsive force' and 'drag force' when talking about technique.

Feedback is an important part of motor learning.  Education research can help us to be better at thinking about what we say, how we say it, and how we reinforce it.  Some coaches/teachers are extremely skilled in doing this work.  This is something we can all learn to get better at.

Happy May!

Roy Strum
Canmore,AB

Coaching effectiveness - what do we know...

how can teaching and learning literature contribute to enhanced coaching effectiveness

 

 

 

I'm not sure if I am out of the loop, but over my years as a coach of adolescent cross country skiers, I have not come across a great deal of literature about what aspects of coaching contribute most to athlete learning and achievement.  If you can point me in that direction, I would appreciate it.  You see I have worked for a number of years in the education world.  In the Teaching world, professional learning networks are the norm - particularly on Twitter, which is probably the single most used and highly effective teacher professional development tool in existence.  I know that there are a ton of athletes who use twitter to update followers on their travels, but I have yet to find a network of connected cross country ski coaches who use twitter to share out their ideas, reflections, and best practices through their blogs or tweets.  If it exists, I sure would appreciate you connecting me to it.  Please message me @RoyStrum on Twitter if you want to connect as a ski coach in this manner.  I am game as I have professionally benefitted so much from my professional learning network in my world as a phys ed teacher.

 

The real aim of this blog post is to share out some reading I have been doing from an education researcher from New Zealand, John Hattie.  In my work in the Calgary Board of Education, Hattie is the latest rage - everyone is reading his work and applying his findings to their professional practice.  Why - because his work is based on a meta-analysis of thosands of education research studies on student achievement.  As I have been reading Hattie's book - Visible Learning - I have constantly been thinking about my work as a coach of adolescent cross country skiers and ways that I can apply Hatties ideas about advancing achievement to my work as a coach.

 

Hattie identifies teachers as a major influence on student achievement.  Not that all teachers are effective or are experts or have a powerful effect on students - but that some teachers undertaking certain acts with appropriately challenging curricula and who show students what the learning outcome is very clearly have a powerful effect.  Some of the major contributions that effective teachers have on student learning are:

•  quality of teaching as perceived by the students - students can pick out the teachers who focus on cognitive engagement with the content and who help students develop a way of thinking and reasoning that fits for the context.  This is completely relevant to coaching - coaches who can enage athletes in thinking about skill acquisition and developing understandings that can be applied in the contexts of being a ski racer are more effective in helping young athletes become better skiers.
• teacher expectations - having high expectations of athletes' success is a self fulfilling prophecy in much the same way as having low expectations of athletes' success.
• teachers' conceptions of teaching, learning, assessment and students - this relates to coaches' views on whether all young athletes can progress and whether achievement is changeable or fixed and whether progress is understood and articulated by coaches.
• teachers' openess - this relates to whether coaches are prepared to be surprised.
• classroom climate- this refers to having a warm socio-emotional climate at practices where errors are not only tolerated but welcomed.
• a focus on teacher clarity in articulating success criteria and achievements - this relates to the degree to which coaches identify success criteria in skill development and athlete development.
• the fostering of effort - probably one of the single most important coaching influences - how much do you foster and champion effort instead of outcomes.  Who gets the recognition in your club, the kid who stands on the podium or every kid who demonstrates effort?
• the engagement of all students - great coaches focus on all young athletes equally, regardless of initial ability.  Every adolescent cross country skier can improve with the right type of coaching interventions.

 

I get excited when I read stimulating books or listen to the stories of folks who have worked hard to achieve something worthwhile.  My practice as a coach is altered by this type of learning.  I would like to find more coaches interested in sharing their practice and their ideas.  You can follow me on Twitter at @RoyStrum - I look forward to connecting with you.

 

Roy Strum

Canmore, AB