About the critical friend
A critical friend does NOT
Make judgements
Give answers
Solve your problems
Rather they……
Support you to manage your own learning:
They:
Ask questions
Listen attentively for:
Clarity (and justifications)
Ambiguity
Inconsistency
Encourage alternative perspectives
Help challenge/extend thinking (and assumptions)
Prompt consideration of possible solutions/suggestions
Discuss possible consequences
Hi Nigel
ReplyDeleteI've always found the critical friend concept a very helpful one, especially in the context of mentoring and peer review - and think this is a brilliant application of it! It's almost a job description of the role we can take for each other as fellow-bloggers, or contributers to blogs! Where did you find the definition?
I've been thinking about this post a lot. Have written it into my assignment for the Grad Cert in eLearning: would love to know what you think.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I wrote:
Having received some less-than-constructive feedback, in the form of “well done; keep up the good work” in response to his painstaking, creative and thoughtful first attempts at blogging, a student was moved to post a quote about the role of a critical friend. It seems to me that this sums up the way in which eLearning can move from an at-best entertaining but marginally educative time-filler to a transformative experience of deep learning. This will only happen if a blog’s “followers” (including the tutor who must surely have the greatest responsibility in this of all followers) take the role of the critical friend as quoted in this post...
i like it, i like it alot
ReplyDelete