Constructive Criticism

Constructive Criticism. What an interesting concept. Telling someone something they did wrong but for the purpose of helping them. Isn’t that what every child says when they are mean to someone? ‘I was only trying to help them.’ Yet we as educators do this all the time with students. And as an educational coach, this is my job! The trick is how to say the criticism without hurting the other person’s feelings. Because hurt feelings will block any reflection on the constructive part of the criticism.

This school year I have been leading a book study focused on guiding a growth mindset in students. The recent chapter topic was how to normalize making mistakes. How can we as educators (and parents) teach our students to learn from their mistakes and recognize how mistakes can be the key to learning. Isn’t this the idea of constructive criticism? To use the mistakes a student or teacher makes as an opportunity to learn. 

In this article, https://www.edutopia.org/article/if-youre-not-failing-youre-not-learning/, learning scientist Manu Kapur states that if you are not failing you are not learning. He uses the term productive failure, how repeated failure leads to improvement. Athletes do this all the time. They practice their skills, are coached to make improvements in certain areas and then practice those new skills. Can’t students do this too. During our book study meeting we discussed ways to set up this type of learning environment periodically to allow students to work through a problem and make their own connections to the idea. Then the teacher steps in and using the connections made by the students to present the “right” solution (maybe how it actually occurred in history, or the concise steps to the math problem).

Learning occurs in many different ways and productive failure can be one tool for teachers to use in their classrooms. If we make mistakes as important as getting the right answer, then maybe the idea of constructive criticism is not met with potential hurt feelings. I think the key is the teacher or me for my coaching. If the teacher or myself creates an environment where students and teachers feel comfortable and valued then using fails as learning opportunities does not need to be a blow to their self-esteem. Allowing for the uncomfortable feeling of not getting it exactly right is important for our students to experience. This can hopefully transfer to their building the resilience to keep at a task. As with most things about classes and schools, it is building safe supportive relationships that is important.

How are you creating an environment to normalize mistakes? Are you thinking about a summer book study? Let’s discuss how I can support you with that, reach out at swladis@edtechease.com. Check out my book reviews and ideas for your classroom or school on Instagram, @edtechease.