When you’re busy, it’s all too easy to respond to your students work with simple comments, such as “that’s a great answer” or a straightforward, “you’re doing really well”. But how much value is held in those comments?
… researchers found that, particularly among students with low self-esteem, what they termed “person praise”, which included statements like “You are great,” can backfire in the face of failure, causing students to feel greater shame (Brummelman et al., 2014). If the student – as a person – was great” after a success, they felt less than great after a failure. Since creativity requires risk-taking and perseverance in the face of disappointment, anything that makes failure feel humiliating is a problem.
As Alane Jordan Starko suggests in the above quote, for creativity to happen a student needs to understand what they’re doing right as well as what they’re doing wrong. They need to feel supported in the creative risks that they take, to have a sense that the path they’re travelling on is the right one, even if that path ultimately leads to a decision to go another way.
By offering your students constructive, informative feedback they will find the courage to delve deeper into their ideas, to explore further and to find truly original ideas. Question their ideas and encourage them to question themselves; challenge them to explain or defend their ideas; give them the verbal support and guidance to push onwards, knowing that they have your support on the way.
Alane Jordan Starko continues: ‘In a classroom atmosphere of acceptance, such comments can be considered valuable help rather than personal judgments or threats to self-esteem.’
We live in a world that is all too quick to judge and, particularly for younger students, taking the more creative path in their approach to their work can be challenging. By hearing your constructive encouragement, even if it contains criticism, will help them feel supported and therefore more confident in taking steps towards creativity.
