How to Perform On-the-job Training - Dean Amory

learned. There is nothing wrong with allowing trainees to learn from their mistakes as long as these
errors are neither dangerous nor potentially costly.
Encouraging the trainee with the occasional word of praise or confirmation that the trainee is
making satisfactory or good progress. This can be a strong motivator and can spur a trainee on to
greater efforts.
Now try doing Activity 3D, which looks at some of the features of constructive and non-onstructive
feedback
6.17 Constructive Feedback
Aim: To develop your understanding about some of the features of constructive and
non-constructive feedback.
Activity 3D
Think of two occasions in your past when you have received feedback from someone else. This
could have been formal or informal and not necessarily related to education or training. Write down
on the chart below, the actual words used as you remember them.
Try to identify whether you felt the feedback was constructive or non-constructive.
CONSTRUCTIVE OR
NON-CONSTRUCTIVE
CONSTRUCTIVE OR
NON-CONSTRUCTIVE
Review of activity 3D
OCCASION 1 OCCASION 2
You will probably have identified a number of aspects of the feedback you received which
determined whether it was constructive or non-constructive. A trainee's performance will only
continue to improve if they are allowed to practise the task and be told how well they are
performing.
Feedback is a way of learning more about ourselves and the effect our behaviour has on others.
Constructive feedback increases self-awareness, offers options and encourages development so it
can be important to learn not only how to give it, but also how to receive it. Constructive feedback
does not mean only positive feedback because negative feedback, given skilfully, can be very
important and useful.
Destructive feedback is feedback which has been given in an unskilled manner which leaves the
trainee simply feeling bad with seemingly nothing on which to build or options for using the
learning.
Generally, constructive feedback has the following seven factors:
Start with the positive - most people need encouragement and to be told when they are doing
something well. When offering feedback, it can really help the trainee to hear first what they have
done well in, e.g. "I really liked how you positioned the knife to maximise the yield!" As our culture
tends to emphasise the negative, the focus tends to be on mistakes more often than strengths. In a
rush to criticise a trainee, you may overlook something that you liked.
Finally, if you highlight the positive performance first, any negative comments are more likely to be
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