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Qualitative feedback is non-numerical and provides specific explanations for improvement, while quantitative feedback is numerical and provides statistical data. Qualitative feedback is useful for refining teaching methods, while quantitative feedback is helpful for making decisions about subordinates. All professions can benefit from qualitative feedback.
Qualitative feedback is a set of observations and responses to one’s work or performance that is based on comparisons and descriptions of characteristics in a non-numerical way. Such feedback is often helpful because it allows the feedback giver to be more specific about what they like and dislike and what they think could be improved. Quantitative feedback, on the other hand, is based on numbers and can be used to develop detailed statistical data. Such data is often collected through surveys that ask participants to rate various aspects of the subject’s performance on a given numerical scale. Many forms of feedback include both qualitative and quantitative aspects.
Many people prefer qualitative feedback because it provides more precise explanations for areas that need improvement or those that shouldn’t be changed. A professor, for example, may discover from his students that he assigns too many readings and does not explain some parts of it well enough in class. It’s much easier to respond to this criticism than it is to respond to a “2 out of 5” rating in the “understandable” category of a quantitative feedback survey. Receiving such constructive criticism annually, if not more often, allows the teacher to refine her teaching methods according to the changing needs of her students and to receive useful feedback for any new teaching techniques she experiments.
This type of feedback, however, is not always as helpful for individuals in management who need to make decisions about their subordinates. Reading pages of feedback about a professor can allow an academic administrator to get a good sense of her strengths and weaknesses, but doing so is time consuming and inaccurate. Quantitative feedback, on the other hand, can provide the administrator with simple average numerical evaluations with which to make decisions. A professor who consistently receives low scores in a variety of different categories may be subject to censure, particularly when he also receives qualitative critiques that further explain problems in his or her teaching method.
Almost all professions can benefit from qualitative feedback. Such feedback may, for example, draw a writer’s attention to lingering flaws in his or her work. An employee can use it to identify and correct flaws in the way he does business. Even athletes, whose performance is often accurately quantified, often benefit from qualitative descriptions of problems with their athletic performance.
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