Following a lesson observation feedback should always be given and traditionally this has been done very soon afterwards. Research shows that feedback in the form of a delayed debrief can be more beneficial as trainees become more actively engaged with the feedback process rather than being passive receivers of information. For this reason, trainees should receive their feedback through a delayed debrief.

A delayed debrief should take place on the day following a formal lesson observation and, ideally, no later than 24 hours following it. In the interim, trainees reflect on the events of the lesson using a the reflection framework to help organise their thoughts. This framework is not a template to be meticulously completed and then discussed item by item during the feedback the following day. Rather, the set of questions provide trainees with a structure to focus their reflection and help them be more reflexive. Answers to the questions in the reflective framework will provide the trainee with the substance of the feedback discussion allowing them to engage more.

To help understand the difference between reflection and reflexivity, Bolton (2009) distinguishes between the two using the following definitions.

Reflection is learning and developing through examining what we think happened on any occasion, and how we think others perceived the event and us, opening our practice to scrutiny by others, and studying data and texts from the wider sphere.

(Bolton, 2009, p13)

Reflexivity is finding strategies to question our own attitudes, thought processes, values, assumptions, prejudices and habitual actions, to strive to understand our complex roles in relation to others.

(Bolton, 2009, p13)

Reference

Bolton, G. (2010) Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development. 3rd Ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd.