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Encouraged ideas for a growth mindset
Encouraged ideas for a growth mindset
Encouraged ideas for a growth mindset
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Process Praise When you praise your students, what words come to mind? Intelligent, smart? According to the article “How Not to Talk to Your Kids” by Po Bronson, these words may do more harm than good. When labeling a student “smart”, they are more likely to rely on their intelligence and disregard the importance of effort entirely. Alternatively, students should be commended for their effort. Effort-praising advocates working hard to get the results you desire. Praising students for their effort can promote them to challenge themselves, strain less, and develop growth mindsets. Commending students effort encourages them to challenge themselves. Some may argue that complimenting children for their intelligence has the same
effect and is just as important. According to Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychologist, they couldn’t be more wrong. Dweck conducted a series of experiments on 400 fifth graders. Researchers were told to divide the children into two groups. One side was praised for intelligence, and the other side was praised for effort. They were then asked to choose between an easy puzzle and an advanced puzzle. The results were astonishing. Effort-praised kids challenged themselves more and enjoyed it, while children labeled as intelligent developed a fear of failure, and in consequence, avoided any challenging puzzles. Praising students for their intelligence can cause them to feel more strain. When students are labeled as “smart”, they concentrate more on presenting themselves as intelligent. What happens when Dweck assigns the smart group and the effort group a challenging puzzle? The smart group became miserable as they strained over the advanced puzzle and took their inability to solve the puzzle as failure. However, the effort group enjoyed the challenge and claimed that it was their favorite puzzle even though they were unable to solve it as well. In Dweck’s experiments, after both the effort and the smart group were unable to solve the advanced puzzle, they were asked to give feedback as to why they were incapable of solving it. The smart group responded by linking it to their lack of intelligence. The effort group took it as a lack of effort, therefore, knew there was room for improvement. Intelligence promotes a fixed mindset in which they believe there is only smart, and not smart. Effort, on the other hand, promotes a growth mindset in which people can become smart through effort. They believe that intelligence was something that could be developed through hard work and practice. Complimenting children for their performance rather than their intelligence can encourage them to face challenges optimistically, and promote growth mindsets. Praising intelligence has proven to have negative effects on children. In contrast, praising hard work has shown remarkable results. Process praise includes complementing effort, strategies, and persistence during difficulties. In this school, we want to encourage students to solve problems through their effort. Hopefully, with time, positive results will show.
Psychologist, Carol S. Dweck in her well researched essay, “Brainology” analyzes how praise impacts mindset and how a growth mindset leads to greater success. She supports this claim by comparing the two different mindsets and how praise can affect them. She then proceeds to show praise leads to a fixed mindset harming a person by changing their views on effort. Finally, she argues that praise changes how and what people value, which can
Meaning that when children grow up with praise such as “oh you must have been so smart to get an A on that test”, instead of “you must have worked really hard on that lesson”, children could take the praise to their intelligence the wrong way and think that since they are “smart” instead of their effort on a task which will cause them problems in the future and they might want to give up and quit. I have seen this first hand and this has actually happened to me before, so I know from experience that this could have a negative effect impact on a student not just students in elementary school but also adults who are going to college or young adults who are looking for a job. In contrast, some students love to get that kind of compliment but they would always end up expecting that so when I work with children I will be complimenting them on the effort they put into everything that they do. From now on, I will be praising children on their effort and not on their
The dynamic between parents and children condition what the child will think and follow through with. It is important that child and parents establish an appropriate relationship that can guide them through their life.This struggle between parents and children as discussed in In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the life of wealthy Christopher McCandless is chronicled, and what may have drove him away to traverse the wilds of Alaska, which ultimately lead to his demise. Jon Krakauer takes the reader on ride explaining the damaged relationship between christopher and his parents using specific events and words, this shaped Christopher into the person that went into the woods to find new horizons. Krakauer does this by introducing his purpose.
Results of students who received praise for intelligence: The students in this category had negative results after receiving praising. When asked afterwards if they wanted to do the same level of problems or try more challenging ones, they chose the task that would allow them to look smart and do well on. Consequently, while telling a child how smart he or she is, we are sending a message to not take risks and just look the part. Afterwards, these children were given a hard task, which they performed poorly on, and they know longer liked the problems and did not want to practice them at home. Children also felt “dumb” and when given the initial task (in which they did well), they performed significantly worse. Lastly, their opinions of intelligence reflected that it was an innate capacity as though you cannot improve.
In school there are cases where very intellegent kids just don’t have that push or motivation to be successful, but then there are the kids that get a straight
When reading the article “The Perils and Promises of Praise”, I was taken aback by the fact that there was a thing as negative praise. The studies show that just telling someone that they are intelligent is detrimental to future success in challenging situations because of the fear of failure. Encouragement of hard work and effort works more effectively than praising intelligence. I still feel that there is a missing element that was not mentioned in the article. It is secret number three in motivation for success in school. That motivation is the parents of the students. I was told that if I failed my classes, I could expect severe punishment and retribution for my failure, unless I prove I tried my best. Motivation is not just praise; it is the support of those adults in a student’s life that gives reinforcement of positive ideas
What is the most effective way to teach? Can students really learn and fully understand the material teachers convey to them on a day to day basis? According to a middle school mathematics teacher, his methods of teaching the traditional way was not as effective and producing a long-term impact as he would have liked. The article "Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!" enriches us to the possibility of applying slight gradual modifications to our teaching methods and how we could find ways to utilize that information in the search for more effective teaching methods to encourage students to explain their thinking and become more deeply involved in the classroom discussions, thus developing their questioning skills (Reinhart, 2000). After analyzing his research, I can say as an aspiring Mathematics teacher myself, there are some positive aspects to his newfound teaching methods, as well as some questions of concern that I have pertaining the longevity of this approach to teaching.
In the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad the writers stresses the importance of financial literacy. Before reading this book, I will be honest and say I had no urgency to learn about money and how it operated. Personally, I figured this was something you learned as you receive wealth, not beforehand. After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and learning about the success he has had after learning about wealth, I would agree that by learning how money operates is key to obtaining it. This book did not change my mind about the subject, but it broaden my outlook on what it take to gain wealth and how to keep it not just for myself, but for my family also. The most important thing that I learned from this book is that with a little wiliness to learn and a little knowledge gained, one can achieve wealth. It is with these key ingredients of knowledge an everlasting
The public high schools began a grading system as a way of telling an individual how they were performing. There was no interest by the public in reporting the school’s progress at teaching. Teachers, in an effort to recognize outstanding performers, looked for a way of rewarding hard-working students for their efforts The grading structure changed from superior and excellent to A’s and B’s. This placed much of the burden of recognizing academic talent on the high schools.
That question had me curious, which lead me to these questions: Is there a right or wrong way to praise? Does the way you praise a child make a difference? One of my personal goals as a third grade teacher is to help each one of the children leave my classroom knowing that they are special in their own unique way and that they have the power to conquer whatever obstacles the world throws at them. With that in mind, I use praise on a daily basis. I thought that what I was saying was helping the children, not just trying to control them. I thought the children needed to hear that from me. According to Alfie Kohn (2001) when you praise a child with “good job” you are telling the child how to feel not allowing them to make the decision for themselves. They become more reliant on you versus them internally making the decision for themselves. Think ...
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward
“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.” That’s what the senior United States Senator from Iowa Chuck Grassley once said. When students get a “F” on their exam, that does not necessary means they are stupid, or they do not know the material. It could only mean they have a different way of learning, or a different way of explaining the material which the teacher is not aware of. There are different ways of learning that students have, and there are different ways they apply their knowledge into real life. Therefore, grades are not the best way to judge the students’ standing in their classes, nor is it the best way to judge their learning process. In addition,
I do not believe, however, in using rewards like stickers or stars, A’s or praise. To quote Alphie Kohn, "When rewards stop, people usually return to the way they acted before." I want my students to be intrinsically motivated and giving out rewards inhibits intrinsic motivation. I want my students to know it is okay to make mistakes and take risks in the classroom. I want to encourage my students by telling them specific feedback on an assignment rather than a star and a "good job." I don’t want them to become dependent on my praise. I want them to be successful learners.
Recognition is classified by Herzberg as a motivator, recognition fills the need of esteem of teachers since it provides acknowledgment for the performance of certain activities. Recognition, according to Hansen, et.al, (2009) is primordial in increasing motivation as it may reinforce the desire of carry out an activity. Students´ recognition was found to be primordial in the increment of teachers´ motivation. Teacher Francisco (14/10/2016) commented that students´ recognition “…is what elevates your ego the most. It is what most motivates you as a teacher.” The recognition given by students is expressed in different forms. Some of the teachers have received phone calls, messages or posts in the social networks expressing students´ gratitude, which make teachers feel happy and satisfied. According to the six teachers interviewed, the students´ gratefulness, interest, and progress are also, considered as a type of recognition, Teacher Maria (14/10/2016) commented:
In academic life, skill and effort are not synonymous; the effort does not guarantee a success, and the ability starts to become more important. This is due to some cognitive ability that allows the student make a mental preparation of the causal implications the management of identities of skill and effort. Such self-perceptions, even though they are complementary, they do not present the same weight for the student; According to the model, perceived how adeptable is the central element. In this sense, in the school context teachers value more effort than the skill. In other words, while a student waiting to be recognized by their ability (which is important for your esteem), the classroom acknowledged their effort. Accordingly, three types