Imagine: it’s late February, and you’re facing a tower of ungraded papers. At this point, you and your students just want to survive finals. So, you write unspecific comments (“good job!” “needs work...”) on each paper to expedite the grading, believing the students don’t really value the feedback anyway. But evidence suggests that may not be true. Recent research from Nicole Abi-Esber and her colleagues examines our underestimation of others’ desire for feedback. Previous studies on feedback suggested that people refrain from giving feedback in order to avoid negative consequences and/or the effort of giving feedback. This study, adding to that body of work, suggests that people avoid giving feedback because they underestimate the positive consequences of feedback for others. Extending these findings to teaching could suggest that we underestimate how much our students want and value feedback, too.
In a series of five studies involving recalled, imagined, or real-time feedback, the authors measured participants’ comfort with giving and receiving feedback, and their estimation of its value for the receiver. Across all studies, participants routinely underestimated the feedback's value for the receiver and overestimated their and the recipient’s discomfort with the feedback process. Why this consistent underestimation? The researchers hypothesized that participants may have recalled their own uncomfortable experiences with feedback, or that they underestimated the possible positive consequences of that feedback for the recipient. Giving honest feedback can be challenging, but when given with a focus on usefulness and applicability, can also lead to learning, improved performance, and more trust. Furthermore, withholding feedback may harm the receiver by hindering learning or allowing students to hold misconceptions about their performance or abilities.
The implications for teaching are clear. This research reminds us that our students want feedback, especially feedback that suggests how to improve. And the consistent findings around underestimation of feedback’s value can help us remember that feedback enhances students’ learning. As we move toward midterms and eventually finals, it is worth reminding ourselves that students value constructive, forward-thinking feedback.