Teachers Should Praise Effort, Not Accomplishment

We've heard a little about this before from Po Bronson and others, but hidden in a recent New York Times article is a description of a recent study showing how children react to different kinds of praise.  Praise them for successful completion of a task, and they are likely to pick less challenging work in the future -- and fib about their success if it's less than stellar.  Praise them for hard and persistent effort towards figuring a problem out, less so.

"Often parents and teachers unwittingly encourage this mind-set by praising children for being smart rather than for trying hard or struggling with the process. “One thing I’ve learned is that kids are exquisitely attuned to the real message, and the real message is, ‘Be smart,’” Professor Dweck said. “It’s not, ‘We love it when you struggle, or when you learn and make mistakes.’”

Check out the study and see if it resonates.  Or, is this simply a modern version of all that feel-good crap from the 1990s, repackaged to look new and shiny?

Comments

[Dan Devine]

that's old news Alexander: http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast/October07/October26.htm

Check out the 11th item or so...

[alexander]

thanks, dan -- i've covered it before, too -- but it's still a bit of a stealth issue in some circles and -- no one's answered this yet -- it's unclear how it would play out without become feel-good all over again. got any ideas on that front?

[Dan Devine]

nope, no ideas whatsoever...but if it is harmful to do A (i.e. persenting gold stars for achievement goals) but not harmful to do B (reward the effort students make), then even though it smacks of 60s feel good happy happy joy joy, wouldnt B be the better choice?

What is funny is that my parents were very much of the B camp, however i was concerned with appearing smart throughout school and receiving good grades -- i even cheated in high school in a lot of classes (science was difficult) and in college, but far less in college (philosophy was much easier).

[John Norton]

There's a good essay related to this topic at Teacher magazine this week:

http://snipurl.com/tm_dohardthings