Feedback Strategies

How do I tell you about this?

Article 1 - Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback

This article mentions one main flaw with how feedback currently works, and that is that "it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future". This is really problematic and affects how the feedback is perceived. Rather than it leading to better performance in the future, it is viewed as a reminder of what was done wrong in the past.

The process of giving individual FeedForward advice is detailed thoroughly in the article. Reading the responses of the individual that participated in the experiments is very interesting. They managed to turn the primarily negative process of receiving feedback into one in which the participants are happy and looking forward to their future work.

Article 2 - How to Craft Constructive Feedback

The main focus of this article was to match the kind of feedback that you give to what the author was expecting to receive. If the piece was written for self-expression then is should be critiqued very lightly. However if it is a serious piece then a set of rules can be followed for giving constructive feedback. I have highlighted these steps below.

1. OBSERVE a feature of the work and give examples, using neutral language.

2. DESCRIBE the effect(s) this feature has on you, the audience.

3. SUGGEST what the creator might do in revision.

These steps formalize the feedback process and increase the likelihood of the feedback resulting in positive changes. I am glad that the article distinguished between giving feedback on personal projects vs. serious pieces of work.

This image expresses a form of feedback that would not entirely follow these rules. However, it is very important to elaborate enough to get across the reasons for critique.

Bibliography

Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback
How to Craft Constructive Feedback
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