I'm reading a book called NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. I highly recommend it. It presents the latest scientific and psychological research in a very readable format centering around 10 issues of childhood, including talking about race with your children, praising your child, the importance of sleep, and sibling fights.
For example, as an educator, I am well-versed in the idea that praise for children should be specific ("I like the blue in your picture") and effort-based ("You worked for so long on that") rather than general ("That's the most beautiful picture I've ever seen!") or performance-based ("You're such a good artist!"). I never had read the research why.
The book presents many of the studies that led to this change of thought, and it was extremely convincing and eye-opening. One study by Dr. Carol Dweck used 400 public school 5th graders. They gave each child individually an easy puzzle test, then praised half the students for their intelligence and half for their effort, using just one single line of praise. That's it.
Then they gave the students a second round of tests, offering them either an easy test like the first one or a harder test that would help them learn a lot. Of the group praised for their effort, 90% chose to try the harder test. Of the group praised for their intelligence, over half chose the easy test. This study suggests that children who are told they are smart want to keep looking smart rather than risk making mistakes.
Next they gave all the students a third round of tests that was very difficult, designed for 7th graders. As expected, no one did well. But the two groups responded very differently to their failure: the effort-praised group worked very hard to keep trying new solutions to the puzzles, but the smart-praised group became frustrated and doubted themselves.
Finally, the students were all given an easy test again. The effort-praised group had raised their scores by about 30 percent. The smart-praised group lowered their scores. by 20 percent. Dr. Dweck concluded, "Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control... Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child's control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure."
Makes you think twice about how you talk to your kids, doesn't it? Read the book for many more studies and eye-openers.
2 comments:
Wow, that's really interesting, Allison. Was it specific to young children or would it also apply to secondary students?
I should have mentioned that, Katrina. It has several chapters focusing on older kids and teens that are really interesting as well. You should read it if you can get a hold of it in Germany!
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