Feedback vs. evaluation: Getting past the reluctance to deliver negative feedback

This post originally appears on the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning site as part of the ongoing Into Practice series.

When Dr. Keith Baker, Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Anesthesia Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, gives medical residents feedback, he emphasizes a “learning orientation” (where the goal is mastery), rather than a “performance orientation” (where the goal is validation of abilities).