In Praise of Students

Throughout my career, I have been interested in the effects of praise on student learning. Recently, an article in Educational Leadership caught my eye.

Carol S. Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford and the author of a new book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, writes that not all praise provides the same results. Some praise gives students self-defeating behaviors while other types of praise motivates students to learn.

It turns out that many students have come to believe that they have a fixed amount of intelligence and become preoccupied with how smart they are, avoiding tasks that might show that they are not so smart. They reject opportunities to learn new things because they might make mistakes. And, when they do make mistakes, they try to hide them. In general, they are not motivated to learn and don't try to learn because it would show that they are not so smart. They don't handle set backs well.

Other young people believe that effort and education will increase their intellectual ability and that intelligence is not a fixed trait. These students take on challenges and stick to them. When they make a mistake they correct it. For them, effort is a positive thing. In the face of failure, they improve their efforts and try to learn new strategies.

Recent research indicates that intelligence is not fixed, and basic aspects of intelligence can be enhanced through effort and learning.

Dweck and her colleagues found that students who were positively reinforced for their intelligence were less likely to choose challenging tasks and opportunities to learn. They also found that students who were praised for their effort wanted harder tasks and more chances to learn. They discovered that children who were praised for trying and who were told that the brain is capable of gaining in intelligence took more responsibility for their learning and engaged in school, learning for their own benefit.

If we want our children to be not only successful learners, but believe they can improve in school, it sounds like praising them for their efforts and not just their intelligence will help them to be more successful.