Feedback Strategies

I enjoyed looking through the feedback gallery on canvas and reading many examples of real, useful feedback given by previous students. Example is often the best way to learn things by and there is no shortage of examples in this list. I particularly like points 4 and 5, "Suggest ways to expand the story" and "Be specific about items to fix." These are key characteristics of constructive criticism as opposed to criticism just for the purpose of being a critic. Nothing is worse than very unthoughtful feedback which says "this could be better" without suggesting how.

I also really liked Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback by Marshall Goldsmith. The reason I liked reading this is similar to the reason I liked points 4 and 5 in the feedback gallery: the concept of "feedforward" shifts the emphasis from what was being done wrong in the past to what can be improved in the future. I feel like this helps to remove the negativity sometimes associated with feedback. Goldsmith discusses how with feedforward, all of the same material can be covered as with feedback in a specific and more positive manner.

Image Source. When giving or receiving feedback, we should root for each other.