Growing Through Feedback

Throughout this three-week period, young people have been engaged in various forms of assessment. Learning to grow through feedback is an important part of growing our understanding and capabilities. Using the language of “what can I learn from this” helps to shift the brain from an emotional response to one of growth. Embracing challenges and learning through feedback is an important habit in life. Having the mindset and capability to learn through challenges and feedback means we are more likely to give things a go and live life fully. Just as when we learnt to walk or ride a bike, we grow most when our minds are set on learning through feedback as we experience success and failure.

We receive feedback from people as we interact. Parents, colleagues, teachers and mentors might give us direct feedback. Most often we need to have the social-emotional capability to read the sometimes, subtle feedback we are receiving. As we think about feedback, having an ideal in our minds is always important. This is true whether we want to improve our academic learning, ability to perform in sport or on stage, who we are as people or in our relationships. Pictures of practice or ways of being provided through guidelines, expectations and role models within families and communities can provide these points of reflection for who we are and the way we interact with others. As an unchanging guide that speaks to us differently at different points in life, God invites us to grow as people and in our relationship with Him as we reflect on His Word. As we reflect, we can often find ourselves falling short of what we or God would have us be. Through God’s love and grace, He picks us up and encourages us to learn through the feedback in life. He whispers, with me you can do this.