“Vulnerability is at the heart of the feedback process. This is true
whether we give, receive, or solicit feedback.” – Brené Brown

In parallel with the Innopod Design group , students of the McGill Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership program are being led by sessional lecturer Noel Burke and facilitator Lise Palmer in a similar process where the final deliverables for the course will feed into the design of NEXTschool. 

The class of 30, composed mainly of school principals and vice-principals, along with 5 Master’s students, have been working through an adapted version of the Design Thinking Playbook for Change Management in K-12 Schools.  Like the Innopods, participants were presented with NEXTschool’s guiding question and took time in the empathy stage to understand the perspectives of all stakeholders.  Working within one of the STARC subsytems, each member of the class has taken that foundational work to contribute to the design challenge, by evolving a prototype of a specific idea and presenting the innovation through a poster and supporting position paper.

Recently, the group worked through the important feedback and reflection stage of the process.  With some basic components of their innovative idea established, they shared their first poster draft with members of their group and utilized a structured process to solicit feedback.  Equipped with a pile of post-it notes and a feedback sheet with four key questions, team members were able to have a respectful and productive dialogue:

At the end of the class, participants were asked to take some quiet reflection time to think and write about their learning from the feedback process. They left the class ready to further iterate their prototypes based on the feedback, discussion and reflection and prepare their posters for presentation at the next class. 

While this use of feedback and reflection is essential for the iterative design process, some participants also discussed how important these tools are for students and teachers in their day to day work together.  If we want each NEXTschool to grow into a collaborative, learning organization – fostering trust and vulnerability, learning how to give and receive feedback and how to practice reflection – are all essential.  Members of each NEXTschool ecosystem (students, teachers, administrators, parents and community members) will need time for training and skill development so that each NEXTschool cohort is ready to thrive in a culture of feedback.  

https://hosted.learnquebec.ca/nextschool/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/04/feedback-520527_640.jpghttps://hosted.learnquebec.ca/nextschool/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/04/feedback-520527_640-150x150.jpglizfalcoNEXTschool“Vulnerability is at the heart of the feedback process. This is true whether we give, receive, or solicit feedback.” – Brené Brown In parallel with the Innopod Design group , students of the McGill Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership program are being led by sessional lecturer Noel Burke and facilitator Lise...