{"id":2806,"date":"2014-11-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stonebridge-blog.positive-dedicated.net2\/teaching-assistants-and-education\/praiseforeffortnotability-2"},"modified":"2020-11-26T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:58:10","slug":"praiseforeffortnotability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/education-teaching-and-coaching\/praiseforeffortnotability\/","title":{"rendered":"Praise children for effort not ability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Praising for ability<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Parents and those working with children know that criticizing the child rather than their behaviour is unproductive and often causes the child to live up to a negative label. However, most of us don\u2019t realise that you should praise a child\u2019s effort \u2013 labelling them in what we perceive to be a positive sense can lead them to achieveing in the future.<\/p>\n

Six studies demonstrated that praise for ability had more negative consequences for students’ motivation than praise for effort. (Mueller, C M; Dwek, C S, 1998)<\/p>\n

Oblivious to this reality, we tend to link children\u2019s achievements to their abilities, thinking this will build and maintain motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"praise<\/td>\n\n

In one study:<\/p>\n

 \u201c85% of the parents polled said they believed that praising children’s ability (i.e. their intelligence) when they perform well on a task is necessary to make them feel that they are smart<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Research has shown that such praise can be perceived as insincere by the child or can make them feel under pressure to perform in the future.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

More profoundly, praise for ability can mould a child\u2019s attitude to learning, leading them to adopt solely performance goals. They then begin to avoid opportunities where they may learn via challenge and possible failure.<\/p>\n

Praise for ability can give children the message that \u201cintelligence is a stable trait\u201d. It is something they either possess or do not. This means that if the child performs poorly they may re-evaluate themselves as not being intelligent and show a helpless attitude to the set-back rather than seeing this as a learning opportunity and an indicator of areas to work on.<\/p>\n

Failure can be extremely productive if viewed in the correct light.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Praising for effort or hard work<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Children praised for hard work however, demonstrate what has been termed \u2018adaptive achievement behaviours<\/em>\u2019 after failure \u2013 linking their performance not to a deficit in intelligence, but to a lapse in effort which can be increased in response to motivation.<\/p>\n

Application of the results of such research can only serve to empower the children that we work with; their achievements are not the outcome of some neurological lottery, but the direct result of applied effort.
\nThis will give them a positive approach to challenge and adaptive reaction to failure.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"child<\/p>\n

\"little<\/td>\n

\n

1.    If a child produces a good piece of artwork for their age do not respond with  . . .
\n\u201cExcellent work, I can see that you have your father\u2019s artistic flair<\/em>&quot;
\nBut say . . .
\n\u201cExcellent, I can see that all your hard work is paying off<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

2.    If a child produces a poor piece of artwork your response should not be . . .
\n\u201cThanks for that, I think we both agree that you are not particularly artistic.<\/em>\u201d
\nBut instead respond with  . . .
\n\u201cThanks for that and you will find that with continued practice your work will greatly improve<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Observe children\u2019s good work and praise them but praise them for effort and not ability. If it\u2019s not up to standard encourage them to put more effort in rather than putting a \u201clack of ability\u201d label on them.<\/p>\n

Mueller, C M; Dweck, C S. (1998). Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation and Performance. <\/a>
\n
\n<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"A-Z<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that praising a child<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":6352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[263,265,262,266,261,264],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-teaching-and-coaching","tag-ability","tag-childrens-motivation","tag-effort","tag-teacher","tag-teaching","tag-teaching-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24579,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions\/24579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stonebridge.uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}