Feedback Strategies: Feedforward

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Feedback can be both negative and positive but all feedback should be constructive to the work and the person that is getting feedback. Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback goes into detail about this.

Feedforward is all about changing the future and not dwelling on the past, the advice that is given is to help the person in the future, so it's showing them what to do right instead of telling them what they did wrong which people find much easier to accept.

Feedback is often taken personally no matter how it is delivered and many people find it hard to accept, where as feedforward involves no such personal critique since it discussing the future and so people find it easier to take on the advice and it would be more helpful then someone praising them in order to soften the blow of critique, this technique is known as compliment sandwich and most often doesn't work.

Praise is all well and good but as is explained in The Difference Between Praise and Feedback praise can also have a negative effect on developing children in the long run. That's not to say that you shouldn't praise your children, there are just more constructive ways to go about it.

When one is giving praise it is best to praise the process rather then the finished piece, for example, telling a child that they must have put a lot of work into their painting instead of just saying that its a nice painting and that they're very talented.

However even this form of praise can be tricky and it would be even better if parents would engage with their children by asking them questions about what they've been doing or pointing out one thing about the finished piece that they can see the child improved on. For instance, if the child plays football and the parent goes to watch they should ask the child what their favourite part of the game was or remark on how they can see that they have been practicing their kick.

Giving feedback and praise are good things, they can help people grow and learn, but only if done right and the right way is often the harder way. But this just means that the outcome of said praise and feedback will be even greater.