Improving Staff Performance - Part Two: Videotape Feedback

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Almost everyone dislikes being criticized, and many supervisors and directors are reluctant to offer feedback to teachers, either to critique or affirm their work. A previous article (Exchange, June 1990) examined why feedback is essential to staff improvement. This article will address a relatively new technological tool for the provision of feedback to teachers: videotape. It will not attempt to provide much information on techniques for operating videotape components, since this is readily available elsewhere.

According to Daniel Ilgen, a psychologist at Michigan State University (New York Times, July 26, 1988, C15), people respond better to criticism that is specific, prompt, and delivered in a considerate manner. Criticism that focuses on what a person has done, that is precise in indicating what was wrong, that addresses a specific and current situation, and that does not assign blame is criticism that provides a constructive rather than a demoralizing ...