Feedback Strategies for C-I Teaching & Learning

Communication is a learned skill developed and refined over time. We cannot simply use a textbook and a standardized test to teach and assess the essential skill of communication. It is a transferable skill that requires iterative learning, and feedback is a significant component of the communication skills development process.

Most of us know, and remind our students and colleagues, of the golden rule of feedback: it is not about the person; it’s about the product. But it is not enough to stop at that. Effective feedback should spur improvement through clear, directive steps. It provides substantive and actionable content, and it is timely. Perhaps most importantly, these components combined keep the focus not only on the artefact, but on the reality that much of the work we do is collaborative in nature. Effective thinkers, makers and doers seek sounding boards. if we’re not testing the validity of our ideas, we’re likely not performing to our full potential. As teachers, our job is to create and foster useful sounding boards for our students so they can learn the material as well as learn the process of iterative practice.

Let’s unpack the elements of effective feedback and how to include substantive, actionable content in a timely fashion.

Purpose & Forms of Feedback

Examples & Feedback Prompts

Additional resources