Building Trust to Build Collective Efficacy: The ABCs of Soliciting and Accepting Feedback
Want to raise teacher self-efficacy? Transform fear of failure into willingness to try through strengthening collaboration among teachers. These ABCs can help.
The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018 reports “the more teachers observed other classrooms, engaged in collaborative professional development, and taught jointly, the more they perceived themselves as being effective teachers.” One way to cultivate interdependence and collaboration among teachers is to build trust. Recall that self-efficacy contributes to collective efficacy , which has an effect size of 1.36 ! Therefore, focusing on building efficacy is perhaps the greatest leverage we have in impacting student learning.
The ABCs of feedback is a tool from Julie Winkle Guilioni that you can coach staff to use (and use yourself) to develop stronger relationships and higher levels of trust. Invite staff to solicit feedback from their colleagues using these ABCs . One or two questions from each category is a great starting point for a feedback conversation.
A – Abilities
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What are my greatest strengths?
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Which of my skills are most valuable?
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What can you always count on me for?
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What value do I bring to our team/grade level/building?
B – Blind Spots
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What behaviors have you observed that might get in my way?
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How have I fallen short of expectations?
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How might my strengths work against me?
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What one change could I make that would have the greatest positive effect on my success and that of our team?
C – Conditions
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In what settings or under what circumstances do I make the greatest contributions?
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Under what conditions have you observed me struggling?
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Do I tend to perform best when working with others or flying solo?
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What factors have you noticed trigger stress or other negative reactions for me?
Tip: Adapt the above questions when you give feedback. For example, “You seem most energized when you ________.” Include the follow-up, “What makes that so energizing for you?”