Additional Feedback Examples

While there's no "one size fits all" approach to feedback that will work for all people in all situations, we've put together some additional examples of phrases that can significantly impact someone's learning experience.

Phrases That Might Do Harm

On the surface, it might seem like saying "This is easy" will help a student feel like the task is within their reach. However, if you say that something is easy and the student is not having an easy time with it, this can lead them to doubt their abilities. Whether they struggled with it or not, once you tell them that something is easy, the accomplishment of completing the task is diminished.

Saying "This is hard" can cause trouble as well. While you might think you're setting realistic expectations, some students might feel intimidated or overwhelmed by this assessment of the task. If you tell a student that something is going to be hard and then they actually find it easy, they might think you aren't holding them to a high enough standard or doubt your ability to help them in the future.

In general, it's better to avoid making value judgements about the difficulty of the work students are asked to do. If someone is struggling and you want to let them know that you struggled with the material too, try to speak directly to your own experience rather than generalizing about how everyone experiences something. For instance, "I had a hard time with this part of the assignment when I was taking the class." This allows you to empathize with their experience while also showing them that finding this particular thing challenging doesn't mean they can't succeed in the class.

Other Helpful Forms of Feedback

Have you ever had the experience of getting back a paper and, as you read through the comments you assume there is a "C" waiting for you on the last page, only to find an "A"? If the person marking your paper only commented on the things that could be improved, you could easily get a skewed sense of your performance.

While Wise Feedback is a useful intervention when giving critical feedback to a student whose work has significant room for improvement, it's also important to point out specific things that students have done well. Not only can this improve a student's faith in their abilities, it also lets them know which things they should continue doing in future work. For instance: "Your comments were very helpful and made it easy to follow your code. You didn't actually need to use nested loops here. A more efficient way to do it would be..."