Feedback Strategies

For this assignment I read the article "Be a Mirror." This reading was extremely insightful and the ideals conveyed through it were amazing because I have experienced much of what is said in the article. The article starts off by distinguishes the two mindsets that students have, that being a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Growth mindsets tend to be held by those who see what it is they are doing, both right and wrong, and using this to grow their mind and become better because of it. A fixed mindset tends to convey that you are the things that you do, and there is not much that can change that. This type of mindset is not good for growth and can leave many students believing that they are unable to achieve certain goals and aspirations that in actually could be achieved! What this article emphasizes is that you are not born with one of these mindsets, you are molded in to whichever mindset you are. This means that a fixed mindset can be turned in to a growth mindset with the right instruction.

The article stresses five different types of feedback to give readers to help cultivate a growth mindset. The first is to be specific, tell the reader exactly what you thought and ask them to name the steps they took. The second is to focus on what the reader is doing, and not what the reader is missing. The third is to focus on the process and what the reader did in said process to show that their effort is important. The fourth is to make sure that this feedback can transfer into other areas, and that this feedback can be useful in a wide array of situation other than the one being critiqued. The Final one is to take yourself out of the feedback. This is the most important one, as saying words like "I think" or "I like how you" just means that you are pleasing the person, rather than focusing on what the reader did and takes the emphasis away from them.

I think that being a mirror to the person you give feedback too is very important. Telling someone that they did something well and not doing much else or saying why is in my opinion a big problem in schooling these days. Telling children that they did something good or that they did something wrong without explaining why or without taking their own process into account leads to a fixed mind. Telling someone good job just means that the person will continue to do something one way without knowing why, and telling someone they did a bad job without explanation will make the person give up because they do not know what there is too improve on. While this is meant for teachers to give to younger students, I think that this reading will help a lot in giving feedback to my fellow students this semester, and I am very glad that I read these feedback tips!