Humanizing K–5 Classrooms: The Process and Impact of Descriptive Feedback

• In Event: Contemporary Applications and Analyses of Dewey's Philosophy of Education

Abstract

The purpose of this design-based research project has been to collaborate with K–5 teachers and students at Bronx Charter (pseudonym) to track how they learn to ask for, receive, and give descriptive feedback (Author, 2002b; 2006; Cook-Sather, 2006). Descriptive feedback refers to students’ description (as opposed to judgment) of their own cognitive and emotional experiences as learners as revealed to teachers and other students in structured, reflective dialogue. Based on a Deweyan/Freirean (Dewey, 1916, 1933; Freire, 1970) conception of reflection, it potentially offers teachers evidence that is not necessarily perceivable through even very careful observation of children or their work: the internal workings of students’ hearts and minds as experienced by the students.

Authors

• Carol R. Rodgers, University at Albany - SUNY

• Theodore (Ted) Swartz, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

• Dasha Alexander, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

• Chris Kinloch, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

• Vanessa Trezza, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning