The challenge area of “Solicit, accept, and provide constructive feedback” presents an opportunity to show that I am effective in a key area of competency of instructional designers, professional communication. To verify my competency at all three skills (which are related, but unique), I have created a compilation of discussion posts from my EDCI 531 class (Learning Theory and Instructional Design). These discussion posts were made over the course of approximately four weeks during which time my peer group (of me and three other students) provided feedback to strengthen each other’s application of learning theories to learning activities. These selected posts show my ability to communicate professionally when receiving and giving feedback, as well as my ability to accept feedback appropriately.

In a collaborative peer environment such as the one from which my examples come, feedback was a critically important tool in improving my work and helping others refine theirs. This social approach to the development of ideas is reminiscent of Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory, about which Schunk says, “interactions with persons in the environment (e.g. apprenticeships, collaborations) stimulate developmental processes and foster cognitive growth” (Schunk, 2020, p. 331). It is with this idea of social collaboration and the goal of cognitive growth that I approach the solicitation of feedback, as evidenced by the first sample in my artifact. In that posting, I was submitting to my peer group the draft of a project. In that post, I admitted to a known weakness that I work diligently to overcome and asked specifically for feedback on how I might address this area of growth. In accepting feedback, I selected a discussion post in which my professor had posed a question in his feedback to me. This post’s inclusion serves two evidentiary purposes. First, this question, following Vygotsky’s theory, fostered in me cognitive growth. As evidenced by my response, I took his feedback, examined it, and applied it to my assignment, while furthering the theoretical application of the work I had already done. Second, the acceptance of feedback is rarely done solely peer-to-peer. As such, I thought it most appropriate to include, for this component of the challenge, an interaction between me and someone in a position of authority in the academic hierarchy (which would be similar to how I would approach feedback from a supervisor in the corporate arena).  As in my artifact, when I provide feedback, I make an effort to both point out what I think the individual did well and what I believe can be improved. Aside from the emotional gratification it may produce, pointing out what works helps those facets be retained in future edits and iterations. Collectively, these posts display my competency in soliciting, accepting, and providing feedback at the professional level expected of instructional designers.

Having worked in a professional instructional design context for years prior to beginning my graduate studies at Purdue, I am familiar with the feedback cycle. However, my experience with feedback was primarily with stakeholders and colleagues in a professional setting, where my role in the feedback cycle was focused on function and aesthetics, but most instructional choices had already been made. The feedback guidelines in this academic setting deviated from the types of feedback I have been accustomed to giving and receiving. In this academic setting, in this particular project, we were expected to deliver our feedback in a professional manner and tone using theoretical evidence to support our suggestions. The act of giving feedback in this way reinforced what I have learned and has changed how I view feedback. Our feedback was expected to further the discourse of the group, not just compliment the work done by our peers. Going back to Vygotsky’s theory, my own intellectual evolution is evidence that this collaborative environment indeed can improve the cognitive growth of the individuals (Schunk, 2020).

As I continue to move through my academic career and ultimately back into the professional world of instructional design, I expect the enhanced approach to the solicit-accept-give feedback cycle to make a significant difference in the way I communicate with colleagues, supervisors, and professors, as well as strengthen my understanding of the learning theories that form the foundation of our field. Now that I have developed an understanding of the theoretical implications of quality feedback, I am committed to making the most of every feedback cycle and contributing to the cognitive growth of the individuals in my collaborative environments.

Schunk, D. H. (2020). Learning theories: An educational perspective (8th edition). Pearson.