Having trouble delivering effective feedback?
Consider the motivations and emotions affecting how your feedback is received.
I just had the pleasure of recording a podcast with Carlton Fong and Diane Schallert, who have written a wonderful article for Educational Psychologist entitled: “Feedback to the future”: Advancing motivational and emotional perspectives in feedback research. I love the pop culture reference in the title - Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies. And Back to the Future directly relates to ideas in their paper. Check this out:
In the scene linked above, Marty McFly voices one of the big themes of the movie: fear of negative feedback (i.e., rejection) and how that fear can prevent people from realizing their potential. Marty’s fear (an emotion) is overwhelming his motivation to be a musician, keeping him stuck in life. He learns the importance of facing fear (and the potential for negative feedback) after going back in time and seeing his father express the same fear, and eventually helping him to overcome it:
I suspect one of the reasons Back to the Future is so popular is because many people share this fear of negative feedback and rejection. That’s why it is so important for feedback providers to consider feedback recipients’ motivations and emotions. Effective feedback providers tailor their words and actions so students can internalize and use that feedback productively. Doing so, as Fong and Schallert describe in their article, requires creating environments and relationships where feedback recipients can answer each of the following questions positively: "What does the feedback mean to me? How do I feel about the feedback? Can I improve from the feedback? Do I want to improve from the feedback? Am I supported by others or by the context in dealing with feedback?” Motivation and emotion play key roles in the answers to each question.
Fong and Schallert’s article is a fantastic synthesis of the roles of motivation and emotion in positive feedback provision and receipt, with clear implications for educational practice and future research. I really encourage you to check it out. I can’t guarantee that reading this article will make you the perfect feedback provider, but I’m confident you’ll do better than this guy: