Feedback Strategies

A Troubling Side Effect of Praise: I can actually relate to this a lot.  It reminds me of the phenomenon called the "Imposter Syndrome".  It basically describes the notion that our success and achievements were all due to sheer luck.  It was just a fluke that we did well.  This belief makes us feel like we're an imposter of what people think we are.  So this leads us to have the fear of being "discovered" as a fluke or imposter.  Personally, I did pretty well in High School.  I graduated top 2 in my class of over 1200 students.  However, in college, I haven't been doing too hot.  So I experience the "Imposter Syndrome" to a small degree.  I don't want to do so poorly that all my previous accomplishments are made void.  I have, in the past, thought about cheating so that I don't get exposed.  So I can see how praise would make people not want to be exposed.  However, I still feel like praise is necessary to build students up and to give the motivation.  Praise is definitely a double-edged sword in education.  However, for my final thoughts, I still think that praise is the best course of action.  In higher education, cheaters won't make it.  So, for example, 60% of students, who cheat,  would fail.  However, the remaining 40% gets built up by praise to do even better and keep trying hard.  It's all operant conditioning.  Their behavior to do well is reinforced by a positive stimulus, the praise.  So in the end, in an experimental group, if there's praise given, there are some high, some medium, and some low.  In an experimental group without praise, there will be a lot of mediums.  I think that we should encourage overachievers even at the expense of having underachievers (those that cheat).

The Difference Between Praise That Promotes Narcissism vs. Healthy Self-Esteem:  This reminds me of about one of the big themes in a really good movie I saw a few years ago, Whiplash.  The composer insults and berates his band.  Insulting and berating would actually be an understatement.  He verbally and emotionally abused them all.  In the end, he reveals that he only did so because he wanted to make the new "Louis Armstrong" or "Charlie Parker".  He claimed that the 2 most destructive words in the English language were "Good Job".  While I don't necessarily agree with his methods, partly because it's psychotic, I can see where he comes from.  He fears that if he praises one of his students, they will grow to be narcissistic and they won't ever improve.  They will be content with where they're at.

Overall, I just think that a balance of praise and feedback is necessary.  We don't live in a black and white world.  Everything has its own conditions and situations.  We just have to assess what the best course of action is.

Two "Dangerous Words"