Praise and Feedback occupy significant spaces in the lives of our learners. It should not be surprising then that the language we use to communicate praise and feedback can enhance or hinder our efforts. Get the language right and we can help a student move forwards in achieving their learning goals, develop resilience and facilitate a growth mindset. Get it wrong and our efforts can have little impact at all or even have a negative result shifting our students towards a fixed mindset and reliance on shallow praise.
Carol Dweck's now famous research on Growth vs Fixed Mindset shows that our attributions of success and failure shape our disposition towards learning. In overly simplified terms, we have two mindsets linked to our perception of our potential for learning in a particular context. Where we exhibit aspects of a fixed mindset we are more likely to believe that our success and/or failure is a result of factors beyond our control. Because we don't control these factors there is nothing we can do to change the result. If the context requires us to develop a new skill, disposition or capability we are likely to believe that we will not be able to do so. In a context where we have a growth mindset we attribute our success to factors which we are in control of. Through our efforts in combination with our positive learning behaviours we are able to achieve new goals even amidst challenging circumstances. Success might not come immediately and we will make mistakes along the way but the ultimate result is personal growth.
Our mindset plays an important role in how we respond to praise and feedback and it is also shaped by the nature of the praise and feedback we receive.
When we routinely receive praise our feedback that is neither actionable or specific, we are more likely to move towards a fixed mindset. Shallow praise encourages us to associate success with immutable qualities. When we are told that what we have done is 'good', 'amazing' or 'wrong' we are given little information to act upon.
As educators the language moves we make when giving praise and feedback are crucial. When we are mindful of the messages we send through our language choices we can aim for praise and feedback that informs future action. When we name and notice the positive actions that a person has taken to achieve their successes we encourage them to repeat their performance. By doing so we provide the positive benefits of appreciative feedback with specific actions for future success.
What is most worth noticing?
By thinking strategically we can target feedback at the specific needs of our learners; appreciative feedback that encourages growth. Effective praise will identify the actions taken by the individual in achieving their success. We are naming and noticing actions, thinking moves and dispositions that we want our learners to engage with more frequently. With feedback we also identify what has worked well and we add value by identifying actions, thinking moves and dispositions that might be useful in the future. Our feedback is enhanced when it is specific and link to behaviours which the the learner can apply in their next learning journey. We can support our learners by being mindful of the language we use. Praise and feedbackmight sound like "I notice that in your learning you . . . and that helped you . . . and to help you achieve your next goal you might . . .".
Praise and feedback can be allies in learning, they just need a little care in how we deliver them and what we target.
By Nigel Coutts