The quickest way to learn

Shoutout to athree23 and Pixabay.com

Happy Start of the week everyone! Let's keep talking about the science behind learning.

As I keep reading this book, I get more and more gold nuggets. In this particular chapter, I stumbled upon the topic of feedback, Its importance and the different types of feedback, which I will share with you today.

When talking about Feedback, many people get discouraged, as the fear of getting It triggers many insecurities and makes us think of the worst case, but more often than not the fear is bigger than the feedback we end up getting.

This aversion to feedback by most learners can give us a competitive advantage that can take us where we want to go in a much shorter time than those who keep themselves sheltered from valuable advice. An advantage that is highlighted by two things: Being able to get early indications on the deficiencies of our skills and the directness of It.

However, If done in a bad way, Feedback can hurt more than It informs. When It's directed towards the ego of a person, whether positive or negative, feedback can give a distorted perception of the person's abilities while saying nothing about what needs to be addressed. For example, when teachers say:

"You're so smart!"
"That kid is lazy"

They aren't giving any precise value about the person's skills or work, but give ambiguous labels that can give kids the wrong notion about themselves, causing a bad shift in their identity.

That's why, whenever you give feedback, try to talk about the work of the person, not the person.

Ok, now we know what feedback is and why It is so important to give feedback well, but what are the types of feedback?

Well, there are three types, which distinguish themselves from one another by the amount of information the person gets. They are:

• Outcome Feedback: This type of feedback is the most common, yet the most vague with regards to the description of our efforts. Outcome feedback is attached to the whole process, either praising, keeping silence or backlashing against the complete product, not separated compartments of a skill. For example:

After you finish a work of art, people can applaud It and say they loved It, but in Itself this doesn't give you any information about what you did good or bad.

• Informational Feedback: Here, the feedback takes a bit of the overall performance and tells you what you did wrong. For example:

When you are in a stand-up routine and you perform a bit that makes no one laugh, you are getting informational feedback that the bit needs some work.

However, the main disadvantage of this type is that even If It tells you what you're doing wrong, It doesn't tell you how to fix It.

• Correctional Feedback: The most precise and effective one. With correctional feedback you get detailed information about where and what you did wrong and how to do It better. The biggest example of this is having a teacher or mentor who analyzes your assignments and points out your mistakes and what you can do to surpass them.

I know the last one's the most expensive, but If you have a clear mission, It's worth the effort. Another thing you should be careful about is the source of your correctional feedback, as getting advice from too many people can lead you to contradictory information. In this case, the best bet will always be someone who has already achieved what you want and is transparent about It.

Well, with that we finish our conversation about feedback. I hope you could have derived entertainment from it and that you get value from It. Remember: Don't fear feedback, as It is the difference between the experts and the amateurs.

Thank you for your support and good luck!