Running head: RESEARCH AS DAILY PRACTICE

Research as Daily Practice: Evaluation of Feedback

(Meenu) Jasmine Chahal

SOCW 699 S01

University of Calgary
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In this essay I will be reviewing, analyzing and reflecting on my journey to becoming a

social worker who has advanced interviewing skills. I will be doing this in the context of

feedback questions I have asked as well as the answers I have received. I hope to explore what

the process was like, beginning from the first transcript ending at my last. I want to map out the

journey it illustrates, where I started, where I am now, and what is perhaps in the future. This

journey has shown many invaluable learnings and sparkling moments as well as gaps and missed

opportunities. By the end of this review I hope to have made clear the process I have underwent,

the mutually transformative process and how this impacted my work and the people I have had

the opportunity to work with. I also want to talk about what trends I notice and what ideas have

come from these noticing’s.

When I first began this class, eliciting feedback to me looked like asking questions such

as “have I been helpful?” or “how has this been for you?”. Reflecting back, these questions have

the habit of either eliciting client feedback in a way that may feel quite evaluative and insincere

in that it does not leave much room for the person to say, “well this wasn’t helpful”. The other

question asking about how the process has been for the client implies that the process is not

mutually affecting and that they are perhaps being enacted upon by a neutral un-affected party.

In my first process recording I had not even asked a feedback question. This is both dismaying

and unsurprising. In the beginning of this class I felt disenchanted with my placement, a short

stay inpatient psychiatry unit where I felt expert stance was greatly valued and where I felt I was

merely running through the motions thinking I could not work together with folks to have

meaningful dialogue in such a setting. I folded.

In contrast, as time went on and more process recordings were done, particularly with

emphasis on eliciting feedback and noticing language, discourses, and movement, I noticed a
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change. This process of being vulnerable and curious with clients stirred something within me.

For example, in my second process recording I started using “we” in the context of checking in

and seeing if the dialogue we both participated in was addressing what the client was hoping to

address. For example, I said “I wanted to double check that we have talked about things that you

were hoping to. Was there anything else you would like to talk about?” and the response I got

from this client was eye-opening. He had such a rich response and things that were really

important for him to talk about were able to be given space where as if I never asked then we

would have both missed out on these experiences. In my third process recording I asked an

almost identical question and his response was not quite what I expected in that this individual

was quite fixated on his wife, but it did illustrate his state of mind and that I was needing to say

something unusual for us to both get to a different spot than we were in. In the fourth process

recording I also used “we” language again, but I noticed that I asked two feedback questions

combined. The client responded with a short answer and I’m realizing two things; firstly, asking

more than one question in one breath must be overwhelming and confusing for the client, even if

it is coming from a place where I was just eager to receive feedback and secondly, asking

questions right at the end of the conversation is not ideal. I’m starting to notice as I review the

feedback questions and answers that the later I asked the question the less likely I was to get

feedback that resulted in going deeper into the conversation and allowed for opportunities for the

client to re-direct me if needed. Also, by the end of the conversation, most of the people I spoke

to explained that they were quite emotionally exhausted and may have just been saying that

everything went fine because they were tired. For example, in my fifth process recording “So

how do you think this conversation has gone? Is there anything else you want us to talk about?” I

asked another two-parter, and the client’s response was “No, I’m pretty tired and my head is
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hurting a bit, but I actually find this stuff helpful” which seems to prove my theory that when I

ask the feedback question too late into the conversation then it narrows the chances of the client

being emotionally available to answer in a way that goes deeper. In process recording six, I again

asked two questions at a time which something is I really need to work on. Although, in that

process recording I asked a feedback to question a little earlier into the session and got a much

more detailed answer than times where I asked it near the end. I’m also noticing that when

questions that I ask in reference to a shift I notice followed by a scaling/feedback question gain

much more traction than saying the same “is this helpful for you” type of question. I asked these

types of questions in process recording six as well as in seven. For instance, in process recording

seven I asked, “I’m noticing you’re smiling a bit…how do you feel compared to when we first

started talking?” was a different way to ask a feedback question and it actually elicited a strong

response from the client in the form of them smiling and reporting that yes, they actually did feel

quite differently/better. For this particular individual I actually asked another feedback question

later on which was also received well. What I gather from this is that asking more than one

feedback question, and in different ways is a more fruitful way to open up possibilities and

different pathways that the conversation can go deeper, faster.

In summary, after reviewing my feedback questions and responses I have come to several

conclusions. First, throughout this process I can see that my passion has been ignited as

evidenced by my increase in using creative language, and an eagerness to ask questions. Second,

this eagerness has in part resulted in asking more than one question which I notice by the

responses I get is not helpful for the client or myself. Third, I tend to use feedback questions near

the end of the conversation which results in limited opportunity to reap the full benefits of

eliciting feedback and I notice that when I asked feedback questions earlier there is a richness in
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the responses that is not there otherwise. Finally, asking feedback questions in a unique way,

such as by saying that I notice a change and asking the client to reflect on whether they agree or

disagree with my assessment yields rich responses that serve to take the conversations to new

places. Additionally, asking for feedback at least twice in the conversation is more helpful than

only asking once. For example, I noticed I got the more elaborate responses by asking once in

the middle and once near the end. I think in the future I will try to ask once in the beginning in

terms of what they would like to talk about, once in the middle to make sure we are still on track

and once at the end to see if anything is outstanding to either talk about then or table for the next

time. Commented [Sally1]: Jasmine—This is beautiful—so

complete and clear and illuminating. Exactly what an
advanced practitioner would do—you have arrived!! And it
has been so fun and rewarding for me to see you change and
grow. Sally