The Importance of Constructive Criticism

It is common to seek confirmation rather than criticism however criticism is essential for growth. This week's TT Workshop did a great job of highlighting the different types of criticism and ways to give supportive criticism. As a teacher it is important to provide your students with feedback that supports their learning, improvement, and growth. Feedback has the ability to motivate students but also has the ability to cause students to shut down. Which is why it is so important to be aware of the feedback you are giving by approaching it as a way to let students know where they can improve while also praising what they did well.

I have personal experience of receiving belittling criticism from a teacher and it led to me being defensive towards any feedback that came from this teacher. In elementary school for book discussions we were allowed to come up and look at the different options before making a request list for our teacher to take into consideration when assigning books. I remember being excited looking at one of the books and putting it on my list when my teacher approached me and said something along the lines of “why are you even looking at that book like I would ever even consider putting you in that group you can’t read a book like that”. This criticism led to me completely shutting down. Later on the teacher ended up assigning me that same book but decided to make a comment as she handed me the book which was “don’t make me regret giving this book to you”. This type of criticism affected my learning experience in this class as I no longer felt excited or motivated to be doing this assignment. It also made me no longer feel comfortable asking this teacher questions if I was ever confused about something.

This experience really showed me that when I become a teacher I do not want to give criticism like this. Criticism should not be something that feels like a personal attack or makes students feel like they are not capable of improving. Criticism should help students enhance their work and personal growth. In my future classroom I want students to actively listen to the feedback I give and learn from it to help them on their learning journey. 

NatashaM@OTU