What Should Course Feedback Look Like?

It should be honest...

Teaching an Introduction to First Aid for CHAIN - Hungerford, how to care for Transport Service Users. (photo Stuart March Photography)

If someone has struggled with, or not enjoyed part of a course, I need to know, so I can adapt for the next person who feels the same way. That's what makes good feedback mean something.

In training, you should be able to adapt your delivery to your delegates. Differentiation is the name of the game. That might mean adjusting for language barriers, learning needs, the environment or the audience. Either way, you should be working hard to be adaptable and engaging.

I get excellent feedback from every course, and I'm genuinely proud of that (my wife gets bored of me reading it to her!). I'm proud because I work hard for it.

Training isn't passive, and my watch proves it

My resting heart rate is 64bpm. Sitting here writing this, it's plodding along at 66bpm. When I'm teaching, it sits at 81–95bpm, all day.

The science bit (keeping it honest)

Your brain is about 2% of your body weight but uses around 20% of its oxygen and, hence calories, mostly from glucose [1]. It's a hungry organ all the time.

Teaching Outdoor First Aid to Teachers, Expedition Leaders & Ecologists (photo Michael Pilkington)

I'd love to tell you that thinking hard sends that through the roof, but the research says otherwise. Focused mental effort adds only around 5% to what your brain already uses [2].

So where does my 15–30 beat jump come from? It's the whole package:

• Being on my feet and moving around the room

• Talking, listening and engaging throughout the day

• Mental workload; studies consistently show heart rate rises as cognitive demand rises [3, 4].

Researchers studying teachers have found the same thing: heart rate goes up during teaching and on teaching days [5, 6]. Your body gears up to stay switched on.

Teaching the Intricacies of Shock and How to Deal with it in Remote Settings to Paddle Leaders from Kingfisher Canoe Club, Abingdon (photo Steph D.)

Am I learning whilst teaching? Of course I am!

I'm reading the room and noticing who's showing signs of understanding or confusion. I'm working out how to explain things in ways that link to their lives and workplaces. That all goes back to the "getting to know you" phase at the start of the course, which feeds directly into how well the ideas land.

So why am I waffling about all this in a post about feedback?

Because that effort is why the feedback is good. If you've worked hard to meet your delegates' needs and helped them link the learning to their lives, your feedback should be glowing. Just like mine!

So if you want a course where your team walks away tired and exhilarated from active learning, rather than tired from boredom, get in touch.

That's why we're Different Perspective Training! Email us at info@DPTrainingUK.com

Teaching the Accident Procedure at TCV-Stave Hill during a Forest School First Aid course (photo CeCe G.)

References

1. Raichle & Gusnard (2002), Appraising the brain's energy budget, PNAS: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC124895

2. Quanta Magazine (2025), How much energy does it take to think?: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-much-energy-does-it-take-to-think-20250604/

3. Mehler et al. (2009), Impact of incremental increases in cognitive workload…: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/2138-02

4. NASA, Psychophysiological measures of cognitive workload in laboratory and flight: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19940007057/downloads/19940007057.pdf

5. Klatt et al. (2025), Using wearable fitness trackers to assess teachers' stress, Frontiers in Education: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1668861/full

6. An ambulatory assessment approach to teachers' heart rate and HRV (2024), Frontiers in Neuroscience: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2024.1499229/full