Thursday, January 28, 2016

Anjali - The Art of Feedback

Anjali was telling me how her class had improved a lot in the way they speak English.
'Earlier they would say 'buyed' for 'bought' or 'back of you' for 'behind you'. But now they are all speaking good English. Some pronunciations are not right still but a lot of improvement.'

I asked her how it happened.

'Chandana aunty said that we must all correct one another when someone makes a mistake that we can correct. So all of us keep correcting each other. I think that's why we are not making the same mistakes like before.'

Wow!

That's such an elegant way to use social knowledge to quickly empower everyone. Learn from everyone and every source. And it's such a nice way for Chandana aunty to empower each child  to correct the other. Nothing like instant feedback. And see the results!

I do exercises like that in corporate houses and I find it so difficult to get the idea across. We have to couch it in corporate jargon and call it culture setting or strengthening when it is all simply a way we ought to be living. All we have to do is call out when someone is making an error (and when they are doing things right too) and the entire community has a wonderful culture that is a self-correcting mechanism.

The key is the feedback of course. Good for you Chandana aunty for enabling that and for really making school such a learning experience.

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