The two articles I read were "How to Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn" and "Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow?". I noticed that there was a little bit of overlap between the contents of each article, specifically that both articles emphasized the importance of specificity in feedback or praise. For example, instead of saying “good job,” it is more helpful to explain what a student or kid did a good job on and how they can further apply their skills or what they learned in the future. And the same goes for applying feedback or when pointing out areas of improvement. Saying "this needs works" is not exactly helpful to a student or child nor does it teach them how to improve later on.
Other than specificity, the first article provided more tips for giving constructive feedback, like how feedback should give a student a better idea of how to apply these tips in the future (similar to what I mentioned with specificity), how feedback should be given to a student in a timely manner, that feedback should be consistent for every assignment, etc. However, I did not fully agree with the author’s tip about how there should be a clear rubric when grading and giving feedback. Rubrics are incredibly helpful, there’s no arguing that, but for some courses or types of assignments, rubrics are not really applicable. Transparency in what a teacher expects is necessary towards helping students, but providing that transparency in the form of a rubric may not always work, so that is why I do not fully agree with the author’s tips in referring to a rubric when giving feedback. And similarly, having the same rubric throughout a semester offers consistency, but it may not always be helpful for or applicable to a certain assignment.
The second article was much shorter and primarily focused on growth mindset, since the article centered around younger kids. Incorporating specificity in praise, or what the author calls "process praise", was the most emphasized point in the article. But also, encouraging kids not to give up and to be resilient were important points of the article. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect"! I do not have much to say about this article since it does not apply to me as much as the first article does, but I think keeping these tips in mind can be helpful towards self-motivation, especially when trying something new for the first time. I really liked this article because of the commonalities I noticed between it and the first article and the growth mindset articles I read a while back.
Satisfaction Meter by Fracarita Belgium: Flickr
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