The Power of Praise!

At what point in life do we stop dreaming about the impossible and all that we can become if we work hard at it? “You can do anything if you set your mind to it and work hard”, is something that I’m sure most of my fellow classmates have heard before either from a parent or inspiring teacher. But somewhere along the way, some of us forget about shooting for the stars and instead 'stick to their guns'.

Last week in lecture/seminar we were shown a short YouTube video concerning the effects of different types of praise and the power acknowledgements have on children; particularly in their mindsets towards learning.

The video describes a simple study done by Professor Carol Dweck, revealing the astonishing effect that praise has on children’s development. The study took four-hundred grade five students and gave them all a simple IQ test and on completion the students were given one-of-two verbal praise: 

1. “Wow, great job! You must be really smart at this!”
2. “Wow, great job! You must have worked really hard at this!”

The study went on to show that the students who were praised on their intelligence alone were far less likely to push themselves to try harder tests and when given difficult tests would become frustrated and give up early. On the other hand the students who were praised on their effort in the testing were 25% more likely to participate in more difficult testing that was prompted to provide’ great opportunity for the students to learn and grow’. When faced with more difficult challenges these students tended to work harder, longer and seemed to enjoy doing the work more as well.  I think it’s remarkable how such a small difference in the prise given to students can make such a huge difference in their development and even more importantly their willingness to push themselves to learn more, challenge themselves, and grow.

This brings me back to my original thought, ‘At what point to we stop pushing ourselves to do more?’

A goal of the new pedagogy is the idea of deep learning. Described by Hattie (2012), this is “conceptual thinking that allows surface and deep knowledge to turn into conjectures and concepts upon which to build new surface and deep understandings” (p. 77).  Deep knowledge is almost an intrinsic/self-motivated achievement.  In order for students to develop self conjectures and to critically think about what is being learned, they need to want to learn and want to make those connections. Otherwise all knowledge being taught is face-value and simply a string of facts to memorize. Hattie’s idea of deep knowledge can be linked quite closely to Dweck’s notion of Growth Mindset.

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Through Dweck’s studies she found that students either have a Fixed or a Growth Mindset. She describes Growth Mindset as the idea that no matter how smart you are, you can still learn and always become smarter. On the other hand students with a Fixed Mindset see intelligence as a fixed trait. For me it seems that the students with the Growth Mindset are far more likely to achieve this idea of deep learning and ultimately be more successful in not only schooling but also to push and self-motivate them throughout life.

So I guess my question has changed. No longer do I wonder when it is that the student decides to stop pushing themselves, but how can I as a teacher implement the idea of Growth Mindset and motivate my students to have the confidence to push their boundaries to grow… either by using ‘effort’ encouraging praise or other concepts.   

Till next time,

Keep Bloggin'!