Education
Response #1
Empathy is highly rated in our society. We are supposed to understand the feelings of people so as to relate to them. This feeling of empathy often result in us providing comfort-oriented feedback to students and children. Often, we also provide entity-oriented feedback to children when they do not succeed in races, or fail to learn a musical instrument. We comfort them, thinking that they should not feel guilty, and might unknowingly be demotivating them.
I found the observation that ‘students exposed to a comfort-oriented feedback were more likely to view their professor as having lower engagement in their learning’ (Rattan, Good and Dweck 736) to be important, as it warned me to avoid putting emotion ahead of logic in class.
Response #2
In our culture, rudeness is a bad quality. If we point out the mistakes of others, we appear rude.. Our parents tell us to be kind. Therefore, we often apply comfort-oriented feedback to students, clients and children when we should have instead provided strategy-oriented feedback. We also apply entity-oriented feedback when candidates score poorly in examinations, as a way of reducing their stress levels.
The quote, ‘seemingly well meaning behavior can lead to highly negative outcomes for the recipient’ (Rattan, Good and Dweck 736) is important, as it tells us that keeping others’ feelings in high regard is alright only to a certain extent. Beyond that, it becomes a negative aspect and the students suffer in the long run.
Response #3
I have seen children and students quail at the voice of stern teachers. I therefore look at things from their perspective. When they do not perform well, I often believe that they are putting in their best, and their performance merely reflects their level of intelligence. Therefore, I provide comfort level feedback. I also provide entity-oriented feedback when clients speak about how they failed in their relationships. I do not judge them. I merely tell them that they tried their best.
I find the quote ‘(instructors’) fixed view of intelligence led them to express their support and encouragement in unproductive ways that ultimately backfired’ (Rattan, Good and Dweck 736) to be illuminating. I realize that my belief in the level of intellect of a student might actually be doing her a disservice.
Reference
Rattan, Aneeta, Catherine Good, and Carol S. Dweck. “ ‘It’s ok- Not Everyone can be Good at Math’: Instructors with and Entity Theory Comfort (and Demotivate) Students.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49: 731-737. 2012. Print.
