How we give praise to children can have a significant effect on their beliefs about learning, their resilience and their test scores.
Carol Dweck has done a lot of research in this field, and published a series of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998, Vol. 75, No. 1, 33-52.
128 children (10-12 years old) were given a set of moderately difficult puzzles and were then told they had done very well. A third were praised for their effort (”you must have worked really hard”), a third for their ability (”you must be smart at this”) and a third were given no additional feedback.
The children were then asked if they wanted to take a harder or easier test (performance or learning goal). 67% of children who had been praised for ability chose the easier test. 92% of those who had been praised for effort chose the harder test.
A harder test was given to all children to examine how they responded to failure. Those praised for effort enjoyed the harder task and wanted to persist in the test more than those praised for ability.
Finally all the children took a test equal in difficulty to the first test. Children receiving ability feedback solved 0.92 fewer problems than they did on the first test. Children praised for effort solved 1.21 more.
By being aware of our communication in the classroom, we can encourage children to choose learning goals over performance goals. We can help them to persist longer and to enjoy overcoming challenges. And we can increase their performance in tests.
How can we get these results into our schools? I offer 2 ways:
- a INSET workshop in mindset, read more here.
- one on one coaching with teachers.