Responding and Getting Response
Fears
3. What is the biggest barrier to giving feedback?
The responses of the students to this question fell into seven categories (plus the usual 'other' category). The top two categories contained almost half of the total comments.
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Lack of understanding or confidence (17 comments)
The most common barrier to giving feedback mentioned related to not feeling qualified to give feedback. -
Fear of offending (12 comments)
The other big barrier to giving feedback was concern about offending the author. -
Time (5 comments)
Having enough time to read the author's work and compose a response was mentioned in several comments. -
Not knowing each other well enough (4 comments)
Getting to know each other allows for the feedback to be better suited to the author's needs. -
Reluctance (4 comments)
Some students were simply uncomfortable with the process or idea of giving feedback to other students. -
Different personal styles (4 comments)
Some students commented that different people have different writing styles, so the style of the author may not match that of the responder. - The feedback process (2 comments)
Finally, there were a couple of comments regarding how to go about giving feedback.
Collection of Actual Comments
Below are the actual comments of the students. The context surrounding some comments has been removed to leave just the actual 'barrier' expressed, but the words of the students have not been changed.
Other comments:
- being new to this way of learning. I'm used to sinking or swimming on my own.
- Delivery
- Fear
- hanging onto limitations like fear or boredom that keep you from thinking clearly
- i always think i can finish other people's sentences with better tone or vocabulary
- I am less likely to be honest and helpful if the person does not care about doing a good job
- I don’t feel barriers when I’m giving someone what I think to be positive and helpful suggestions and opinions
- I personally don't have any barrier to giving feedback.
- If we’re to provide feedback online, the simple fact that none of us can write marks on another’s paper will be a huge barrier to giving feedback
- shut-down. When you shut someone down, they don’t listen to you
- value placed on tolerance interferes with healthy disagreement, which is where true growth occurs.
- when a normally great writer churns out a dud
- who are we to judge
Lack of knowledge or lack of confidence...
- [Not wanting to] be wrong about what I'm saying.
- being able to see what needs work
- feeling like the receipent won't think I know anything
- I don’t feel qualified to give criticism.
- knowledge -- you must first know what you are reading and then know the rules of the language to be able to provide constructive criticism.
- knowledge of the subject matter.
- making sure what I’m saying to them is correct
- my own ability
- Not having a semi clear understanding of the idea creates problems in a paper
- not knowing what to say about someone else’s work that would help them improve their writing
- not sure of my feelings to the paper written.
- not understanding the material
- simply not understanding what it is their writing about.
- that I am not familiar with the subject enough to feel I qualify to give feedback
- when the idea of a piece is unclear
Fear of offending the author...
- [Not wanting to] be too critical
- if people take the criticism personally as an attack rather than a device to help
- if there is a chance that the feedback may come across in a negative way, I have a hard time taking that leap with people I haven’t really been privileged to know
- not really knowing how well the person is going take me writing all over there paper they worked so hard on.
- Not wanting to hurt someone's feelings
- taking the feedback personally.
- that people will hold back saying what they want to because they think I will be offended
- that they may offend the writer.
- the fear that my responses might not be welcome.
- the fear that people are going to jump down your throat for making a negative comment about their piece
- the tendency to be too nice, or to try to hard to think of a really good way to say what I am thinking
- trying to give someone sufficient advice with out offending them.
Time...
- Having ample time to read and reflect on a piece of work.
- lack of time.
- not thoroughly reading the piece under review before commenting on it.
- the time it takes to genuinely analyze the writing
- time is a big barrier
Not knowing each other well enough...
- I am better at giving feed back if I have known the person for a while, or we have a preexisting relationship.
- I am not comfortable giving substantive feedback to people who I do not know well.
- It is much easier giving honest feedback to a friend as opposed to someone you just met.
- that we, as students, don't really know each other so it may be harder for us to give constructive criticism that the writer could benefit from.
General reluctance...
- Feeling comfortable with giving and receiving criticism.
- I don't like to tell other people how they should write.
- Overcoming shyness
- reluctance to critique someone else’s work
Differences in personal style...
- difference in personal styles
- i have to take a breath and let them have their own style.
- personal choice
- personalities
Lack of clarity about the process...
- knowing what decisions are technical or useful, and what are just the opinion of the reader.
- lack of knowing what sort of feedback the writer was looking for