TITLE: Not Receiving Negative Feedback Makes It Hard to Improve
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 18, 2020  4:10 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 As a financial writer for Forbes and the Wall Street Journal,
 Jason Zweig has received a lot of letters from readers, many of
 them forcefully suggesting that his columns could be better.  In
<A HREF="https://jasonzweig.com/a-conversation-with-david-perell/">
   this interview</A>,
 he speaks calmly about processing negative feedback:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 ... when you get negative feedback, you have to <B>sort</B> it.
 You can't just take all negative feedback and throw it in the
 "I'm not reading this" bucket.  You have to go through it.  And
 you have to say: "Is this person, who says I'm wrong, right or
 wrong?"  Because if the person says you're wrong, and is wrong,
 then how does that hurt you?  But if the person who says you're
 wrong is right, it's devastating to you if you don't listen.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
  It's not about winning.  It's about learning.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

 I know profs who refuse to read their student assessments because
 it's too hard emotionally to deal with negative feedback.  I
 understand the temptation...  There are semesters when thirty-nine
 reviews are positive, yet the one negative review lodges itself in
 my brain and won't let go.  Even after decades of teaching, it can
 be hard to shake off those comments immediately.  And when there
 many comments that are "constructive" or just plain negative, well,
 reading the assessments can really demoralize.

 But as Zweig says, closing myself off to the feedback is ultimately
 a losing proposition.  Sometimes I assess a comment and decide that
 it's off the mark, or the result of singular event or experience
 and therefore isn't worth sweating over.  But what about when the
 reviewer is right?  Or when there's a kernel of truth in an
 otherwise unnecessarily personal comment?  Ignoring the truth
 doesn't do me any good.  I want to get better.

 I did not receive student assessments this spring.  When the
 university moved to remote instruction suddenly, the administration
 and faculty agreed to suspended assessments for the semester, with
 the idea that teaching and learning would both be a bit bumpier
 than usual under the extreme conditions.  Just before the last week
 of the term, they agreed to bring optional assessments back purely
 for the prof's personal use, but by then I decided to pass.  Some
 of my students provided some helpful feedback, including constructive
 criticism, all on their own.

 I'll actually miss reading my assessments this month, if not the
 sudden spike in my blood pressure that sometimes accompanies them.
 Students are usually helpful and surprisingly generous in their
 evaluations, and I still usually learn a lot from the positive ones
 and the negative ones alike.
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