Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/improving-staff-performance-part-one-providing-feedback/5007315/
Many communities face a diminishing pool of experienced and qualified workers. As Sheerer and Jorde-Bloom (Exchange, April 1990) note, the success and very survival of some programs will depend upon their capacity to attract, recruit, train, develop, and retain competent staff. An essential ingredient to improving teacher and ultimately center quality in the 1990s will be the continued development of individual team members.This article will address one aspect of the development of individual staff: the provision of feedback. A future article will review the effectiveness of a relatively new technological tool for providing feedback: videotape.
The Purpose of Feedback
Feedback is central to any supervisory process. "It's essential to good management to let people know when they are doing well and when they are not," states Dr. Robert Baron, leading industrial psychologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in Troy, New York. "You simply can't expect people to improve without that information" (New York Times, July 26, 1988, C1). Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto agree. "Without knowing an individual's performance, it becomes impossible to determine, with any sense of accuracy and equity, how the individual should be rewarded, what the individual's development needs are, and what ...