At the The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IS_SoTL) conference I was present during a panel discussion where a conference attendee asked the presenter about the “role of a critical friend.” The term grabbed me and I knew I had to spend a bit of time finding out what it meant. After some web searching I found the following definition and citation.
A critical friend can be defined as a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward. The friend is an advocate for the success of that work
Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (1993) Through the Lens of a Critical Friend. Educational Leadership 51(2) 49-51
I have been blessed with a few wonderful critical friends who, through their prodding and reservoirs of insight, help me hone my arguments and craft my over all presentation to make the best use of my points, and often they simply keep my spirits up so I can continue working on whatever I am working on at the time. I value their input and hope that I come close to providing the same level of catalyst for their work as well.
I like the term “critical friend,” someone whose input is critical to the process and from whom one can expect friendly criticism. Both very necessary to an academic life.
I guess this is pretty much my definition of a friend :)
Tags: meta-learningArchived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/11/03.html#a1411; comments are here.
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