Feedback is NOT Constructive Criticism

Over the last few months, I’ve been reading up as much as I could on the topic of feedback. It became something of great interest to me when I realized that the way I was giving and receiving feedback could use some definite upgrades from what I had been taught as both a coach and a teacher. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Feedback is a continuous cycle intended to close the gap between current performance and future performance by correcting misconceptions. That performance is not the performance of other learners but some overall standard.

And the misconceptions are about being off course in two different ways. We either don’t realize we’re off course or we do but don’t know how to fix it.

Feedback is neutral. No judgment. No emotion. Not praise or advice.

Feedback is actionable. It makes it clear what good performance looks like. No guessing.

Feedback should facilitate the act of self-assessment and reflection.

Feedback helps show what was successful and should be replicated in the future, but more importantly, what didn’t work and what misconceptions must be cleared up.

(Proper) feedback motivates you and pushes you to do more.

Feedback should happen while the learner has time to make adjustments and act on the feedback (i.e., formative assessment). Therefore, feedback provided with formally timed assessments (i.e., summative assessment) isn’t as useful.

Feedback helps instructional folks decide what direction to take their instruction next.

Feedback is multi-directional — instructor to learner, environment to learner, environment to instructor, learner to instructor.

Feedback can be given down (instructor to learner) up (learner to instructor) and sideways (learner to learner).

Feedback loops or cycles allow us to instruct less (because we’re busy providing more feedback) but yet create more learning than just using instruction alone. This is the big bonus of feedback!

Feedback can show us that we didn’t know something in the first place (i.e., lack of understanding); that what we did learn was learned incorrectly (i.e., misunderstanding); that we forgot what we learned; that we remembered it incorrectly; and/or that we identified ambiguous information presented with the correct info.

Finally, Feedback is not constructive criticism. That term, I’d say, is an oxymoron. How can criticism be constructive? Also, based on the above, there really can be no such thing as negative or positive feedback. Feedback is information. It only becomes negative or positive when the person receiving it chooses to perceive it through an emotional filter or the person giving it adds an emotional overtone to it. If that’s the case, then it’s no longer feedback — it’s praise or criticism.

Next time around: a ‘recipe’ for giving feedback.