Feedback And Critique

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions." - Ken Blanchard 

What is feedback?  

Feedback is receiving information about one's performance or understanding in a particular area of study. Feedback is the cheapest way to improve if the feedback is good and constructive. 

It is very difficult to be very self aware without feedback from others. Self awareness and monitoring provide a good platform but feedback from others informs us in ways that enriches our self knowledge. 

Why is it so important? 

We need feedback because most people don't see themselves as others see them. For this reason, they often don't understand their own shortcomings or "blind spots." For example, learners don't always know when their work is appreciated, and they aren’t always sure when they’re on the right track. Even well intentioned and hard-working learners rely on ingrained patterns of behavior in their learning. Because they aren’t always conscious of what comes naturally, they may be the only ones who don't know what they are doing wrong.

How does good feedback help us in our learning?

• Feedback is important to the ongoing development of learners in any setting. Many learning situations involve the integration of knowledge, skills and behavior in complex and often stressful environments with time pressure on both teacher and learner.
• Feedback is central to developing any learners' competence and confidence at all stages of their learning. Feedback is a critical element of any learning throughout the teaching and learning process. Learners should value feedback highly, and valid feedback is based on observation by their teachers and their peers, deal with observable behaviour and be practical, timely, and concrete. 
• One of the main purposes of feedback is to encourage reflection. Many learning opportunities are wasted if they are not accompanied by feedback from an observer, so too are they wasted if the learner cannot reflect honestly on his or her performance. Two key skills are (a) ‘unpacking’ your reasoning and decision making processes and (b) describing and discussing the ethical values and beliefs that guide you. 
• Feedback should emphasise ongoing reflective practice that helps learners to develop the capacity to critically evaluate their own and others’ performance, to self-monitor and move towards autonomy.

Good and Bad feedback:

When people do not receive enough information about their performance they will not be able to progress. Good feedback  may help the individual receiving feedback relate to:

• Whether or not they are achieving their goals
• What they are supposed to be achieving in the activity in question i.e. why are we learning this
• What they are currently doing well and what areas require improvement
• How they are impacting on their peers in the class

Back feedback on the other hand is diffused negative comments that are not constructive. Good feedback is given by someone you trust for your benefit, bad feedback is given by someone that does not have your best interests at heart.

Good feedback is essential to learning. If people don't fully appreciate their strengths, how can they use them to their advantage? If they aren't sure of what they are doing wrong

, how will they know what to change, and will they have the motivation to improve? 

People who want to improve want feedback. As valuable and as desirable as it is, the challenge is to provide good and constructive feedback. Negative feedback can have adverse effects and reduce the motivation of the learner. 

The most common reasons for bad feedback are:

• People usually find it uncomfortable to confront each other about performance issues.
• Most people aren’t sure how to give feedback effectively.
• Very few people like accepting negative feedback.

Examples of good feedback are:

• Evaluative - impartial, thought provoking, assessing critique that is intended to help the learner improve. 
• Constructive - encouraging, honest and interested critique. 
• Non judgmental - educational, worthwhile and balanced critique.

On the other hand bad feedback is:

• Judgmental - blinkered, opinionated and agressive critique.
• Negative - spiteful, pointless and non-productive critique.

The following mind map succinctly deals with this.

Impacts of good and bad feedback 

Do you think you have been giving good feedback? Explain why you have or have not.


I usually give good feedback, most of which is direct to the person concerned. I have not shared most of my feedback on the respective blogs because I have faced considerable time constraints this year. I prefer to give feedback on a personal basis because I think it is more encouraging and beneficial to the person concerned. Nobody likes being criticized publicly.


I put the following comment on Nicole's blog - "It's Raining Words":

I said this because I really liked her presentation and wanted her to know that her work was beneficial to us and that I appreciated her for her efforts. I think this would have benefitted her by motivating her to perform even better in the future. I think that it is important to give positive feedback when it is deserved.

Positive Feedback on Prezi

"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." - Elbert Hubbard