In today's VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) society, which necessitates the inclusion of diverse opinions and claims, people must collaboratively generate new ideas through respectful and constructive criticism. In other words, the ability to provide constructive criticism is essential. Higher education is expected to nurture these critical and constructive skills. However, some university students struggle with this, often perceiving even constructive criticism as an “attack” and thus, avoiding giving feedback to avoid being disliked by their peers. Fostering psychological safety is crucial for enabling constructive criticism. Ensuring psychological safety typically involves reaching consensus and avoiding criticism of other's opinions, which does not support convergent discussions that require dialectical argumentation. Conclusions reaching necessitate both divergent and convergent processes, which involve frank mutual criticism and psychological safety. In this context, we report two studies aimed at achieving both psychological safety and constructive criticism in cooperative learning among college students. Study 1 employed a questionnaire to assess how students perceived receiving and giving constructive criticism. The analysis indicated that students who viewed receiving criticism positively were more likely to provide critical feedback, whereas those with negative perceptions tended to avoid it. This suggests that shifting perceptions criticism to a positive view is necessary to promote mutually critical interactions. Based on the findings in Study 1, we propose a method to transform students’ negative perceptions of critical comments into positive ones. This method involves introducing a discourse transformation activity where critical comments are reframed as “gifts” rather than “attacks.” By breaking the traditional association of “criticism = attack,” and establishing a new association of “criticism = gift,” where, “gift” signifies valuable assistance or suggestions, this approach aims to make criticism perceived as positive and safe. Study 2 tested the proposed method, and the results confirmed its effectiveness. After applying the discourse transformation activity, students’ impressions of the critical comments shifted from negative to more positive.

Keywords: Learning through discussion, Constructive Criticism, Psychological Safety, Higher education.