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In-service program documentation
Soliciting feedback about the program (D8.1)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Raffaella Borasi)
Choice of when and how to solicit feedback about the program
Participants in our in-service program had multiple opportunities throughout
the program to provide feedback on specific activities in their journals
and/or in the reflective sessions that often followed most activities. At
three key points in the programs, however, more "formal" feedback
was solicited from the participants:
- Free-write at the end of the intesive week of the Summer Institute:
Before they left on Friday, participants were given about 15 minutes
to jot down their overall impressions about the first week of the Summer
Institute. They were simply told that they had about 15 minutes to "down-load"
what they felt after these intensive five days spent together; these responses
could be left anonymous but they would be collected so that the facilitators
could gather valuable feedback.
- Anonymous open-ended evaluation questionnaire on the Summer Institute:
After the whole Summer Institute (i.e., intensive week and follow-up
day) had been concluded, participants were distributed an evaluation questionnaire
asking for their impressions about key elements of the course (see Instructional
materials for the text of this questionnaire for one implementation
of the program). Participants were asked to complete this questionnaire
and bring it with them at the next project-wide meeting (after they would
have completed their first "experience as teacher"). This timeframe
was chosen so that participants could look back at the Summer Institute
after they had begun to put into practice the new approach in their classes;
unfortunately, this choice had the disadvantage that many participants
(especially those who had attended the Summer Institute at the beginning
of the summer) forgot about the task and never turned in the questionnaire.
- Whole group discussion at the end of the program: Given
the many demands on the participants' time towards the end of the year,
so far we never managed to ask them to complete a questionnaire at the
end of the program (although we think it would be well worth it!). Instead,
we have made sure to devote some time in the last project-wide meeting
to ask the participants to look back at their experience in the program
and give us some feedback about key components as well as suggestions for
how to improve the program.
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