Feedback Reflection




STAGE 1: Giving and Receiving Feedback


Giving feedback is an art in itself. I particular learnt this fact when I took a creative writing course as one of my electives during my degree. Each week we had to read other students’ work and provide constructive criticism – it was torture! But in saying that, it did teach me a lot about being able to contribute to another’s work through constructive comments and being able to take on board the feedback of others. What I have learnt through giving feedback (and also being on the receiving end) is the importance of using a consistent tone in your comments. Your tone needs to say, ‘I appreciate you sharing this’ and that ‘the comments I am making are a reflection of the work and not of you in general’. Although, some people find it hard to differentiate between the two J

 
Two key elements that I try to remember when giving feedback are to be specific and descriptive. General statements like, ‘this is a good read’, or ‘I don’t understand what you are saying’, aren’t helpful and therefore are of no use in saying. By being specific and saying what it is you do like about it and providing some reasoning behind why this is, is key to giving feedback that is of use to the recipient. I find giving specific examples to be of help as well.

 
Being able to receive feedback and take on board the suggestions of others is just as important as being able to give feedback. While admitting to be a perfectionist when it comes to my work, I also know that my work is not perfect. People have different ideas – different ways of seeing things that can be extremely helpful when it comes to improving one’s work. This is the way I treat feedback that is given to me. Any sort of constructive feedback shows that the person has taken the time to read, engage and really think about your work, so it is important that you take on board what they have to say.



STAGE 2: Giving and Receiving Feedback
Concrete Examples of Informed Action

 

I received positive and constructive feedback from my two group members, Jonathon and Kyra, at both stages of my Research Blog review. Their feedback points and suggestions for improvement included:

 
-          To adjust the sounding for my recorded videos as the first one proved difficult to hear;

-          To add an additional column in the Annotated Bibliography table that details where the references were located in the blog posts;

-          To add an additional section that explains “what would happen next in this ILA”.

 
These suggestions were taken into account when finalising my presentation and the last stage of my Blog. I used a different recording program to capture my presentation and ensured that I tested the playback before uploading it so there would not be any sound issues. In regards to the other two feedback comments, I carefully considered whether adding these two sections would enhance what was featured on my Blog. Since all the references in my Annotated Bibliography were cited mainly in my Information Synthesis (Literature Review) which was located in the same Blog page, adding an additional column for this purpose seemed futile.  As for the additional ‘what would happen next’ section, since the research was with undergraduates in a university context, and I was not the director of the ILA, future recommendations were the extent to which I could make changes to the ILA. I could only report these findings to the subject coordinator and hope that she would take them on board in future designs of the ILA.

 
The feedback I received from Mandy after my presentation was to discard one of the data results tables I used, as the graphs worked better; and, to include more qualitative data in the write up of my results i.e., quotes made by the students. As per these recommendations, I went with the graphs and left out the table and I also made sure that I filtered in quotes specifically in Section 7: Results and Discussion. These quotes were displayed in italics to make it easier for the reader to distinguish.

 
All of these feedback comments were helpful in the reflection and self-assessment of my work and served to highlight areas where improvements could be made. I hope the suggestions that I gave to my group members (see below) were considered helpful and provided some perspective on their research ILA and Blog.





 
 
 

    
 


    

    


 
 


1 comment:

  1. I agree that it is very important to make sure that feedback never turns into a "pat on the back" style of non-constructive feedback.

    I have been using the hamburger method of feedback which involves giving a complement, then following that up with the criticism and suggestions before finishing again on a complement.

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