Feedback and its Impact on Child Development

Quite simply, feedback is the sharing of information about the student's performance. Positive feedback serves to sustain behavior that is appropriate and effective. Feedback is like a booster that can influence anyone to chase the goal effectively. It is the way of giving information about a person’s current behavior. It is not that feedback can be gained only through oral communication. It can come in any form. For example, if a teacher is giving lectures in a class, and the students are just looking at the teacher without giving any expression, it means that the students don’t understand anything. Even in our professional life also, this feedback plays a very important role.

When we get positive feedbacks from the side of the management, we become more productive and started working more efficiently. In matters of children also, feedback is very important. Sometime it is given to encourage the kid to continue with the same behavior, where as in other cases it is given to change or improve the present behavior. There are many different ways to give feedback on writing. Teachers can ask children to read each other’s work. They can learn from and give feedback to each other. Encourage children to write on alternative lines. They can make corrections more easily on their work this way. When children get a feedback, they feel their existence and this boosts up their enthusiasm.

Another factor that may influence the effectiveness of feedback is whether it is provided continuously or differentially. When continuous feedback is employed, students receive feedback each time they perform a given task, whereas differential feedback is only provided when a student performs better on the task. One advantage that differential feedback offers over continuous feedback is that it emphasizes improvement rather than a student’s absolute level of achievement. Giving feedback is an art of positively encouraging someone. There are two forms of feedback that one can provide: positive feedback and constructive feedback. Positive feedback is used to reinforce desired behavior. Constructive feedback addresses areas in need of improvement. It is important to provide children with both forms of feedback in order to improve and maintain quality performance.

Feedback should be given immediately after the task gets finished so that it can be implemented easily and in an effective manner. We elders should keep the feedback on a simple note so that it is comprehensible by our children. It should be clear, simple and complete. Words like “you can improve”, “well written should refrain from feedback procedures as they creates ambiguity and bewilderment. Such statements may make children confused. A teacher should also avoid injunctions like “don’t write in uppercase, poor, untidy work” because such statements are power-centric and can disconnect the child with learning procedure. Instead, teacher should try to incorporate such a feedback in classroom which is dialogic and non-threatening.

Constructive criticism also sometime turns to be negative. It depends upon the presentation of the feedback. Parents and teachers should approach the child according to their age. When different researches have been conducted into feedback, it has probed certain aspects of causes and effects in learning. It has been demonstrated that feedback of global grades or simply confirming correct answers has little impact on subsequent performance and that frequent use of evaluative feedback for conduct and neatness of work may impair its meaning as an evaluation of intellectual quality of the child’s work.