Giving and receiving feedback

with a growth mindset

What is a feedback?

● Information about reactions to a person’s behaviour or performance,

to a product or a service, used as a basis for improvement
● The process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its
input in order to regulate its further output
● The transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an
action, event, or process to the original or controlling source

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Purpose of Feedback

• How can we expect people to change and develop if they don’t know
what they need to change?
• Unless they get feedback, how do they know what they do well so they
can continue doing it?

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Why use feedback?

Continuous improvement
● Used effectively, feedback offers a positive reinforcement of good
behaviours:
○ Show personal awareness
○ Ask for feedback
○ Be seen to act on feedback

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The Johari Window

Known to You Unknown to You

Arena Blind Spot Known to Others

Facade Unknown Unknown to Others

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Effects of Feedback

Arena Blind Spot

Facade Unknown

• Greater openness
Blind
• Increased trust Arena Spot
• Fewer surprises

Facade Unknown

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Giving and receiving feedback

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Do’s and dont’s of feedback

● Think in groups : about your personal experience with giving and

receiving feedback
● Analyze in groups : what behaviours/word/attitudes made the
feedback effective or ineffective?

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A 4 step formula for giving feedback

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A 4 step formula for giving feedback

● The micro-yes: Let the receiver know that feedback is about to be

given (creates independence and clarity)
● Data point: State objectively and specifically what facts you are
referring to
● Show impact: State the (emotional) impact these facts had on you
● End on a question: Wrap your feedabck with a question able to create
a joint problem solving scenario

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Feedback Literacy (Brown&Leigh’s Feedback Rules)

•TIMELY: given as close to the event as possible (taking account of the person’s
readiness etc)
•SELECTIVE: addressing one or two key issues rather than too many at once
•DESCRIPTIVE: non-judgemental, based on behaviour not personality
•BALANCED: the good and the bad
•SUGGESTIONS not PRESCRIPTIONS: you may not you must/shall
•DIRECTED towards behavior that can be changed

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The Sandwich feedback

● Start with something positive (giving examples)

● Give the feedback

● End on a positive note

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Corrective feedback protocol

0 - Emotional fever: Measure ours/theirs emotional fever

0 - Agreement: "Can I give you some feedback?“
1 - Specific and Descriptive: "When…"
2 - Effects and negative influences : if… then…
3 – Personalized: "In my opinion ...“
4 - Behavioral alternative: what to do, how to do it and when
5 – Support: Offer help

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The Ladder of
Feedback

Tool to help promote effective

peer feedback between students.

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The Ladder of Feedback
● Ask clarifying questions:
○ "I'm not sure I understand this part. Can you explain it to me?"
○ "What exactly did you mean by this?"
● Comment on the strengths of the work:
○ "I really like how you organized your ideas."
● Raise any concerns they may have about the work:
○ "I'm not sure if this paragraph fits well with the rest of the story. What do you
think?"
○ "Have you thought about including more examples to support your argument?"
● Make suggestions for improvement:
○ "Maybe you could add a bit more detail here to make your point stronger."
○ "To make your presentation more engaging, you could try using images to
illustrate your points."

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 Time Phase Description Partner A: Partner B:

0-2 Elevator Partner A explains Explain your Take notes on

Pitch the process, product process, product what you are
or idea in two or idea hearing or listen
minutes actively

20 min peer 2-4 Clarifying Partner B asks Answer clarifying Ask clarifying

feedback
Questions clarifying questions questions questions
without giving any
feedback

Students pair up and engage in a 4-6 Feedback Partner B gives

feedback to Partner
Take notes on
specific feedback
Offer feedback in
the form of two
five-step process. Each step takes A you have gotten things that worked
well and one idea
two minutes. When the first for an improvement

student is done, the partners

switch roles. You, as a teacher, can
keep a timer going and say, “next”
6-8 Paraphrase Partner A Paraphrase what Listen to see if the
paraphrases what you have heard paraphrased
when it is time to move to the next he or she has heard
from Partner B
information is
correct
phase.
8-10 Next Steps Partner A makes a Make a list of Check the list of
list of future future revisions revisions
revisions
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Feedback is NOT criticism! Common mistakes

FEEDBACK CRITICISM

Focus on facts/behaviours Focus on the person (fixed mindset)

Future oriented Past oriented

Specific General

Suggestions for improvement Blaming / No advices

Motivating and encouraging Prompts defensiveness

Descriptive, positive language Judgemental, accusatory language

Positively supportive Negatively evaluative

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Feedback matrix
Negative Positive Poisoned mushrooms
They reduce self-esteem
and ruin the relationship
Specific They are judgments
Avoid as much as possible

Candies
If used too much generate
Generic performance anxiety
They convey judgments
Avoid especially in
comparisons
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Receiving feedback ● Fight or flight instincts:
primordial powerful responses
to danger
● To be effective feedback
process needs to avoid both of
these primal reactions, or else
any messages put across will be
firmly REJECTED

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Receiving feedback
The person receiving the feedback can react with:
• Anger – ‘I’ve had enough of this’
• Denial – this reaction often accompanies the initial shock of feedback ‘I
cant see any problem with that’
• Blame – ‘It’s not my fault. What can you expect when the client won’t
listen?
• Rationalisation – finding excuses to try and justify their behaviour ‘I’ve
had a particularly bad week’ ‘Doesn’t everyone do this?’
• Acceptance
• Renewed Action
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The 5 steps for Receiving Feedback

1. Stay in silence

2. Listen
3. Thank
4. Separate collection/recycle
5. Act

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Rules for Receiving Feedback

• Listen/read carefully to what is being said

• Don’t reject it!
o Accept positive feedback…don’t reject it!
o Accept negative feedback...don’t reject it!
o Avoid arguing or being defensive.
• When do we reject the source of feedback? Someone you do not like, do
not have respect for, does not like you, cannot realistically offer helpful
feedback.

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Rules for Receiving Feedback

• Acknowledge the giver of feedback and show his or her appreciation. The
feedback may not have been easy to give.
• Involve mutual good will
o Receiver should feel that the giver isn’t their enemy
o Giver has to be willing to help the receiver develop
o People should be receptive to feedback and see it as helpful

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Rules for Receiving Feedback

• Ask questions to clarify fully and seek examples is useful, keep notes if
needed
• Give it time to sink in and get into perspective
• Address areas for improvement

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Feedback Role
Play
1-Travis keeps up with his great performance when
working alone but he avoids being a team player
2-Max often ignores what his teacher says and
interrupts the class with silly comments
3-Ruby is very creative when it comes to
presentations but struggles with her public speaking
skills.
4-Bella has constantly been missing her project
deadlines due to some jargons in her personal life
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● Split in couples and choose 2 of the presented
scenarios, or invent 2 new scenarios relevant for your
work.
●Each of you will be feedback giver of one of the 2
scenarios. The first time A will be giver and B will be
receiver of one scenario; the second time, B will be giver,
A will be receiver of another scenario.
●Take 3 minutes to write the feedback of your scenario.
When you are ready, perform the scenario. The giver
follows the guidelines for giving feedback, the receiver
follows the guidelines for receiving feedback!
●At the end, le’ts share together our feedback about the
giving/receiving procedure followed.
The 6 Thinking Hats method
Edward De Bono (1985)

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We need to solve this problem

You, as a team of teachers, have a really important project to finalize. It is with

heavy administration, a lot of documents to be filled in and you are still far away
from finishing it. The deadline is on Friday. Meanwhile, Tom comes to you. He is
a student with learning difficulties. He needs more time to understand the
lesson and he lacks concentration. He usually is not open to admit that he needs
help, but this time he asks you to spend some time together to prepare for his
final exam. The exam is also on Friday.

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Instructions

The group has 15 minutes to discuss the situation and find a solution.

Everybody will be assigned a role: during the discussion, you need to adopt the
attitude and characteristics of the role you are assigned.

You have 5 minutes to enter in the role. Before and during the discussion, do not
reveal what your role is.

Ready..?

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Debriefing Take a piece of paper and try to
describe the role of the person on
your right. Hand the piece of paper
The 6 Thinking Hats is a method to him/her.
for solving problems in groups.
Each Hat symbolizes a role, a mode Read aloud the piece paper you are
of thinking. given. Is the description correct?
Can you explain better the role you
were assigned and reveal what
colour your Hat was?

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In practice…

Example of a Typical Hat sequence

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The 6 thinking Hats
strategy

A parallel thinking strategy that

can be used as a peer feedback
strategy or student - teacher
feedback strategy

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 Peer feedback chart
The White Hat (fact-based thinking)
Describe the task under revision: what are 5
objective facts you can state about your peer
work?
The Yellow Hat (positive thinking)
What are the strenghts of the woork under
revision? State 2 positive elements of the
work
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The Red Hat (emotional thinking)
How do you feel about the task under
revision?
The Green Hat (creative thinking)
What would you change? State 1 concrete
improvement you would suggest for the task
under revision
The Black Hat (critical thinking)
What are your concerns about the work
under revison? State 1 thing it is not clear for
you
The Blue Hat (managed thinking)
In summary, how would you consider the
work under revision? What lessons can be
learned for the next task?
The 6 thinking Hats strategy

●The 6 thinking hats can alleviate some of the common feeling associated
with peer feedback: emotions, helplessness and confusion
●Assign a hat and ask students to give their peer feedback according to their
mode of thinking only (maybe writing notes on a colored paper)
●Choose the most suitable delivery method for your class (assigning roles
randomly, let students choose the role they prefer, deliberately assign
roles)
●The 6 hats can be also used simultaneously

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 Book-review chart
The White Hat (fact-based thinking) The Red Hat (emotional thinking) The Black Hat (critical thinking)
What are the keyfacts of the book? What were your feeling and emotions while What are the main weaknesses of this
reading this book? book? Why?

The Yellow Hat (positive thinking) The Green Hat (creative thinking) The Blue Hat (managed thinking)
What would be the benefit of reading this What are three other ways in which this Have you considered all relevant
book for students of your age? book could have ended? perspectives to review this book?

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 Formative Assessment chart
The White Hat (fact-based thinking) The Red Hat (emotional thinking) The Black Hat (critical thinking)
What did you learn this week? Name 5 facts How did you feel this week? What activity didn’t you like doing? Why?
you learned about…

The Yellow Hat (positive thinking) The Green Hat (creative thinking) The Blue Hat (managed thinking)
What was your best achievement this week? If you could change something about this In summary, how would you rate his week?
Why? week, what would you change? Why? What could be the plan for next week?

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