Feedback Strategies

     This week I picked out a couple of articles that I felt could apply to me in particular.  The first one that I chose for this post was Preschoolers and Praise: What Kind of Messages Help Kids Grow?  This one initially stood out as I happen to work with preschoolers through first grade most of the time while I'm at work!  While this has definitely helped my patience, I knew that there were still a lot of things that I could improve upon.  At times, it's hard to understand exactly the best approach to take when trying to help young kids and I thought that this article may help.  Immediately I noticed I tend to do a lot of what this article discourages: generic praise.  One specific line about the cons of generic praise is that it lacks instructional value.  The article spoke of a different kind of praise that would be better to implement: process praise.  Process praise works to tie children's actions to their own success.  It is very similar to the idea of using "yet."  Process praise ultimately helps to give children a growth mindset.  With practice, a child with a growth mindset can grow up to become a lifelong learner.  I think I'm good at giving feedback, though maybe not always useful.  I had always tried to give positive feedback, but I'm now seeing that generic positive feedback isn't necessarily beneficial. 
     The next article that stood out to me was Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" I chose this one for basically the same reason that I picked the first article I wrote about.  I really enjoy boosting kids at work and giving them positive feedback, but reading through the article I realized that I probably use the phrase "good job" way too much! I always thought it was quick and got the point across that they were doing the right thing, but the article pointed out that at times this could be manipulative.  Do we say good job because we mean it, or because it is convenient for us to tell them that so it'll make things easier on us in the future?  This article gave me a lot to think about in terms of responding to young ones.  I learned that giving praise when unnecessary could make kids build a reliance towards hearing that sort of praise, and might ultimately make them less secure.  It's true, kids should do things because they want to do them, and they shouldn't have to seek an adult's approval in order to feel good about something that they have done.  Hearing "good job" is somewhat a conditional feeling, while children need unconditional support.  One of the tips I really liked from the article was pointing out the obvious or stating things such as "you did it!"  That way the kid could be proud of their own work and it wouldn't be contingent on my own praise.  I think I need to practice giving constructive criticism, and I think blog comments would be a great way for me to hone this skill!

This photo depicts a happy and smiling student :)

Source: Flickr