Giving – and receiving – helpful feedback
For a course we recently needed to come up with guidelines for feedback on work products. This is what I suggested. Discuss! ;-)
When giving feedback, there are a few pointers that help making it easier for you to give and for the other person to receive feedback:
- Use the sandwich-principle: Start and end with positive remarks*
- Be descriptive: Make sure both of you know exactly what you are talking about.
- Be concrete: Point out exactly what you like and where you see potential for improvement.
- Be constructive: Show options of how you might improve upon what is there.
- Be realistic: If you are working on a tight timeline, do consider whether pointing out all issues is necessary or whether there are points that are more essential than others.
- Don’t overdo it: Point out a pattern rather than criticizing every single occurrence of a systematic problem.
- Point out your subjectivity: You are not an objective judge. Make sure the recipient of your feedback knows that you are giving a subjective opinion.
- Don’t discuss: You state your point and clarify if you are asked for clarifications.
- Don’t insist: It’s the recipient’s choice whether to accept feedback.
When receiving feedback, there are also a couple of behaviors that make it easier for the other person to give you feedback:
- Don’t interrupt: Let them finish explaining the point they are trying to make.
- Don’t justify: Accept their feedback on your choices or actions without trying to make them understand why you chose what you chose.
- Ask for clarification: If in doubt, ask what they meant by what they said.
- Take notes: Write down the important points and review them later.
- Be appreciative: Let them know you value their feedback and are grateful they took the time to give it to you.
*edit 2.9.2022: These days, I tend to not recommend the sandwich principle any more. Instead, I really like this structure:
1: neutral acknowledgement (“I see you put a lot of effort into bringing together a lot of information!”)
2: warning of a problematic aspect (“with so many different ideas, it is not easy to find a red thread”)
3: suggesting a solution (“provide the reader with a structure by …”)
Currently reading: "Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice" (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) - Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching says:
[…] article on it. Usually the rules for feedback are as clear as boring (for really boring, see my 2015 post on the topic…): Feedback should be concrete! Timely! About the observable product or action, […]