Feedback Strategies

In this weeks Feedback Strategies we focused more on giving feedback rather than receiving it.  The two articles that I read about feed back were "The difference between Praise and Feedback" and "Be a Mirror".  

In the first article- The difference between praise and feedback, the main point is that we should reinforce the effort that a child (or anyone) contributes to something as opposed to just saying "You're really good at that!" That way the person's talent does not become fixed and it allows them to continue to grow and face new challenges instead of vise versa. 

In the second article, "Be a Mirror"it touches on the same point of not having a fixed mindset so that you continue to grow.  As stated in the article this applies to being a mirror because "a mirrors job is to reflect back what is there without judgement."  And we should do the same with out feedback. 

As far as whether I am on the praise or non-praise side, I would say that I lean towards the non-praise side and definitely agree with praising effort over talent.  Being a dance teacher, my main job is obviously to teach, but to also help and critique which means giving feedback.  It is rare that I will ever say "good job!" to a student without adding something else on the end.  For example, I would say, "Good! Just try to point your toes harder next time".  There is always improving to be done and growing to do and I believe this applies to all areas of life not just dance.  As far as praising effort, I love to call out students who I can tell have been working at home on certain skills.  There is one girl in one of my classes this year who it is her first year of dance so she is a little bit behind the other girls in her class.  One week we were working on a certain step that she was really struggling with and she got frustrated.  Over the next few weeks she got better and better until one day she just showed up to class and could do it perfectly! She told me she had been practicing at home and I praised for that.  Like I said, in dance there is always improvement and I always stress to my students that class is not the only time to work on things and its imperative to work at home as well and keep growing!

Praising effort over talent. Web Source.