After reading a lot of the material out there by Carol Dweck, both in the popular media as well as the actual research, it still surprises me that many people out there are reluctant to stop praising kids for how smart they are.
While I was working this morning, I was shocked to hear one mother remark out loud (only to the child - none of her adult friends were around) how smart her toddler was because he put a book back in the bookstore. Those of you who are curious, there is no item on any assessment of intelligence that asks a child to put books away.
I had a copy of Carol Dweck's book, and I dropped it in front of her and walked away.
Praising a person's intelligence only decreases the amount of effort that that person will exert in the future.
People (and children) tend to see intelligence as a fixed, all-or-none concept. I got it or I don't. Some children may distinguish math intelligence from video-game intelligence, but many don't think too deeply about such fine distinctions. These children then reason, "If I am intelligent, then things should come easy to me."
They then do some interesting things. They become invested in maintaining this status of "intelligent" by avoiding things that don't come easy to them. The opposite is true - if a child believes that he or she is not intelligent, they will avoid things that don't come easy to them so as to not confirm this belief, and will usually engage in activities that seem to come easy to them (usually disruptive behavior).
Praising effort leads children to believe that they are in control of their performance. "I failed my math test because I didn't study/ didn't pay attention/ didn't work hard enough" vs. "I failed because I am stupid" are two radically different statements. The first denotes that by changing my effort, I can change performance in the future. The second indicates that there is really nothing more I can do to improve.
So please, stop praising intelligence.
Showing posts with label Dweck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dweck. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Attitudes regarding intelligence influence children's academics
A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.
All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University, often influenced by what parents and others in their environment tell them.
"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone,"
Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'" Others do not make effortful attempts because they have been told (and have been convinced) that since they are smart, effort is for dummies. Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.
Some other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life. Dweck calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.
Dweck investigated whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.
"We saw among those with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called "fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.
Dweck and her colleague from Columbia, Lisa Blackwell next investigated if they "gave" students a growth mindset, by teaching them how to think about their intelligence, what effect would that have on their grades?
So, about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.
The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."
Basically, the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.
"When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections," Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing."
Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist, Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.
"If you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."
All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University, often influenced by what parents and others in their environment tell them.
"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone,"
Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'" Others do not make effortful attempts because they have been told (and have been convinced) that since they are smart, effort is for dummies. Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.
Some other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life. Dweck calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.
Dweck investigated whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.
"We saw among those with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called "fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.
Dweck and her colleague from Columbia, Lisa Blackwell next investigated if they "gave" students a growth mindset, by teaching them how to think about their intelligence, what effect would that have on their grades?
So, about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.
The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."
Basically, the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.
"When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections," Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing."
Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist, Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.
"If you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."
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