Giving Feedback to Children

I’m not a parent (yet), but I know the struggle of providing feedback. As a teacher, I realized that giving specific feedback to children is hard. But soooo worth it in the long run. Children are more likely to remember how they did a “good job” than just that smiley face sticker on their assignment. In today’s segment of the Growth Mindset series, we will focus on how to give specific praise to our children while also providing them feedback when they are showing a fixed mindset.

First, let’s focus on these tips when it comes to parenting our children with a growth mindset.

-Be mindful of how they progress overtime.

-Encourage them to take risks and tackle new challenges at home and at school.

-Praise them not for the ease with which they learn, but for the amount of effort they put into learning.

-Emphasize perseverance and effort in academics and extracurricular activities.

(Brock & Hundley, 2016)

A Better Way To Praise

“When the praise is attached to a process, the person’s willingness to tackle new challenges and show resiliency in the face of mistakes and setbacks is not compromised by crippled self-efficacy.” (Brock & Hundley, 2016)

Person praise versus process praise: Person praise focuses on the child’s personal traits and qualities. For example, “You’re so smart!” This type of praise sends the message that they “succeeded because of some inherent, inborn quality they possess, not the effort they put into the task.” (Brock & Hundley, 2016) Process praise acknowledges effort and actions that contributed to the success of a task. For example, “You worked really hard at that!”

The same can go for critiques. As growth mindset leaders, we want to provide constructive critiques that leave our children feeling secure and confident that they can try again. “A person critique is feedback that blames a failure or a setback on the quality of a person”, while a process critique again focuses on the “effort, or lack thereof, put into the task.”

Feedback stems:

I noticed how…

Look at how much progress you’ve made on…

I admire how hard you have worked on…

I can see you really enjoyed learning…

Could it make a difference if you…

Have you considered trying a different strategy…

You’re on the right track, and might consider...

Learn, Grow, and Share what you’ve learned about Growth Mindset this week!

Happy Learning!

Ashley

Resources: Brock, A., & Hundley, H. (2016). The growth mindset coach: A teacher's month-by-month handbook for empowering students to achieve. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press.