Feedbacks! Do We Really Need Them?

Feedback, Uh! Is it really helpful? Consider the plight of a poor husband, who feels like hanging himself from the ceiling every day. Apart for the poor guy, feedback or criticism about a prior action could be helpful in improving or adjusting current and future actions. Feedback occurs when an environment reacts to a behavior or action. Effective negative or positive feedback is beneficial in making informed decisions. It improves performance, effective listening, motivates and helps in learning. Feedback in education with clear guidance from the instructor is an essential part of the learning process and improves understanding of the new concepts efficiently. Bellon et al. (1991)  state that academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior...this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting. At the same time, effective feedback from a teacher builds a positive bond with the students making learning direct and adequate. In a study conducted by American behavioral scientists, Emily Heaphy, and Marcial Losada, it was found that for the effective learning, the ideal ratio of praise to criticism is 5.6:1 (Zenger & Folkman, 2013), making praise as an important aspect of feedback. In case of my assignment, when I passed my Design Document for peer review, I was a bit confident that my document would be very clear and up to the mark.  I had revised my file prior to submission and after receiving feedback from my professor Dr. Robinson and hoped that I have cleared all of my mistakes. Alas! I was wrong, not 100%, but probably 20%. I had some grammatical mistakes, but this feedback was really very essential for a good course development. Luckily, my reviewer is an English teacher and she gave me a good overview of small mistakes that I overlooked. As long as the design of the document or the goals/objectives is concerned, there were no faults. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and have a good understanding of the subject of power plants, so there were no errors in the learning modules section. Beside minor English grammar issues (English is my third language), there were some formatting issues. Uploading the file via email made a few changes in the reference section, as the indentation was changed, and my reviewer caught that. I have made the suggested changes in my document and hope the end result would be a fine Design Course Document meeting the high standard of this graduate course.
In the end, I would conclude that the feedback was a clear guidance in improving my learning, making me more confident, self-aware and an enthusiastic student.

References:

Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2001, February 1). The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business beams. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6), 740-765. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0002764203260208

Staff. Why is feedback important? Reading University Journal. Retrieved from https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/engageinfeedback/Whyisfeedbackimportant/

Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2013, March 13). Giving feedback. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/03/the-ideal-praise-to-criticism