Feedback Strategies

As a senior, I think I have gotten more comfortable giving feedback to college students. I hope this is because I have grown over the years and gained confidence, skills, and experiences to bolster my feedback abilities, but it may also be because seniors are generally respected and viewed as knowledgeable on campus, which makes it easier to feel good about giving feedback.

Article #1: How to Provide Great Feedback When You’re Not In Charge

From the title, I thought this article was going to be about providing feedback as a peer rather than as a teacher or supervisor. In reality, this article was just about three different types of feedback and how to use them effectively. It was good information, but I think the title is inaccurate/misleading. The article asks a question about the last time we readers felt our feedback actually helped someone, and I think my feedback is most useful when it is about something I am good at. When I am supposed to give feedback for part of a structured assignment or exercise, I don't feel that my feedback is as effective because I am not an expert at the generic activities done in these types of exercises. I think the best feedback will always be voluntary. Moving on to the types of feedback, I agree that evaluation is the worst kind. In my own personal experiences, is true that students will often care more about the grade than any advice or comments from the grader, which is counter-productive. (This relates to Laura's emphasis on non-traditional grading the growth mindset!)

(Image Info: Participation trophy by Davidelai, no changes; Source: Wikimedia; License: here)

Article #2: The Trouble with “Amazing”: Giving Praise that Matters

I was intrigued by this article's title because I related to it: I myself have both given and heard the "amazing" praise too many times to count. I liked that the article focused on shifting to specific feedback - even for positive feedback. Most times in my life, positive feedback has been generic while negative feedback has been very specific. If humans could channel their talent for zero-ing in on exactly where the negative feedback comes in and apply that to positive feedback as well, that could be really helpful for improving talents that are already pretty good. Perhaps this is one thing that Olympians do as compared to other competitive athletes who never reach Olympic-caliber. In any case, I will work more on providing specific praise to those around me.