Learning About Feedback 2

 

Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/42874/why-understanding-these-four-types-of-mistakes-can-help-us-learn

    Eduardo Briceno's article explains the different types of mistakes that can help people learn and grow. Mistakes, he says, are good for expanding the boundaries of what we know. The first of the four types is stretch mistakes, the ones we make while challenging ourselves over our capabilities. The second is "aha" mistakes, the ones we make when we do not realize we have done something wrong and force us to alter our practice for next time. The third are sloppy mistakes, which are just as they sound; sloppy mistakes are the ones we make when we lose focus or lack concentration. The fourth type are the high-stakes mistakes, and these we generally would not like to see because they might have real consequences. These different kinds can all help us learn, like challenging ourselves, warning us to pay better attention, or showing us that we might need to practice more next time.

    I like what the article has to say about learning from mistakes, and I never thought to identify stretch mistakes in the way Briceno did. We are always making mistakes in order to challenge ourselves and improve our abilities. I have been drawing for years, since I was in middle school, and there are still techniques I cannot currently do. Even though I haven't become some master of art like some, I still think of myself as good- and I am always better than I had been before because I was always unconsciously expanding the boundaries of my abilities. This goes for writing and classes too. In my term papers last semester I found that I had made some high-stakes mistakes when writing them because I hadn't given myself as much time as I actually needed to write two at the same time. I had waited too long, and though they did not end up being so bad, I still did not feel as though they were the best I could have done if I had begun them earlier. The high-stakes mistakes help us grow because the faults in judgement we make haunt us long enough to not make them again. 

The Trouble With "Amazing": Giving Praise that Matters

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/the-trouble-with-amazing/

    In this article, Jennifer Gonzalez tells of the different ways that bland praise can be unhelpful to someone who wants to improve. The general phrases we have come to use when trying to praise someone are vague and unspecific, and aside from the initial high from the compliment we are left still wanting to know what is good about our effort. Gonzalez's advice is to be more specific and to focus less on the person. When giving helpful feedback or genuine compliments, we want the person to know what they've done good in their work, and we want them to see what can be done again. Not only this, but using personal terms like "you're amazing" affix their work to their identity. When complimenting someone, we do not want them to feel like their good work is validation, but to acknowledge the effort it took to make it.

    I have found Gonzalez's words to be true, often in longer assignments I would only receive feedback on what I had done wrong, but usually nothing about what I can do to excel again. If i did well I would not get much but a "Wow" or "good job!", but this did not tell me anything about what I did well. Of course, it is not good to fall into a formula, but it is nice to know what can be applied to other works to ensure they are just as good. I also experienced the absence of feedback a lot as well, and it felt like my time was wasted in the end, because I had produced a large piece of work and gotten nothing back as far as improvement. I do like when people offer specific tips and compliments, as that is the only way I can actually know what I did right.