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.
I’m pleased to announce I’ve finished a new article on coaching and learning! Please download and read how coaching can support learning.
I’m excited to continue working with teachers and to be promoting the benefits of coaching to the world of education. I was interested to find a life coach (ex teacher) called Douglas Woods, who shares my belief that many staff would benefit from the support offered by a coach:
Many staff find it increasingly difficult to cope and to continue to deliver their best for the benefit of the pupils. Consequently many staff find themselves in need of support or reluctantly consider leaving their chosen profession.
Remember, if you’re a teacher then I would love the opportunity to support you in your work. And have a great new year!
Non directive coaching is a big part of business and life coaching. It assumes that the client has all the knowledge and resources they need to progress and grow in their personal and professional life.
Non directive coaching is extremely useful in schools, where teachers can support each other in achieving their goals and resolving their issues.
This workshop gives an introduction to coaching and the ideas of rapport, non directive questions and high quality listening. The aim of the workshop is to give attendees experience in the coaching process - what it is like to coach and to be coached.
The workshop is 90 minutes with a 10 minute break. Home made cookies supplied by me!
One understanding of teaching is the blend of expert knowledge with the facilitation of learning. We need people who know what they’re talking about, and that knowledge is useless unless it’s actually being absorbed! Depending on the teaching environment I think a good mix would be at least 50% facilitation. In more student directed learning environments then this could be much higher.
Facilitation means “the act of making easier”, it is not tied to any subject or area of knowledge. It is more of a set of values. In my experience of coaching and learning, important values are respect, listening, awareness, focus, authenticity, humour.
Life coaching is very close to facilitation. If I had to guess then I’d say that in my practice of coaching, the facilitation to expert mix is around 80:20. The expertise that I bring to the mix is based on experience and the tools I’ve learnt in my study of communication. Life coaching is about making it easier for people to get what they want.