Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion "The Inverse Power of Praise"

Thanks for sharing. It describes so well what I saw with my own kids. I especially liked this quote -

"... those who think that innate intelligence is the key to success begin to discount the importance of effort. I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts."

I might print it up and start saving some of these things to give to my kids. This is a nice summary of some reasonable sounding advice. It's something to think about. Hmm., I just wished they linked to that 50 minute video. I'd call that a high recommendation if a fifty minute children's cirriculum based on Carol Dweck's incremental theory was for sale I'd buy it and pass it around.

Here's an old thread about that article:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/7721/1.html

The right bit of praise at the right time has enormous power.

?????

Clip:
It didn’t take long. The teachers—who hadn’t known which students had been assigned to which workshop—could pick out the students who had been taught that intelligence can be developed. They improved their study habits and grades. In a single semester, Blackwell reversed the students’ longtime trend of decreasing math grades.

The only difference between the control group and the test group were two lessons, a total of 50 minutes spent teaching not math but a single idea: that the brain is a muscle. Giving it a harder workout makes you smarter. That alone improved their math scores.

I looked back at it and it was a 50 minute essay the students read aloud. I don't know why I was thinking it was a fifty minute video they watched. I meant I might start printing up some of these popular articles on how the mind work to share with my kids later... "the human mind, the users manuel".
I think the advice makes sense that letting people know effort counts, effort expands your results, expands your capacity, The advice that letting kids know this increases their resiliency and willingness to stretch their capacity, sounds like practical advice to me.

Of course I'd rather just explain that and show them the article than quit telling my baby "you're the prettiest little princess in the whole wide world. How'd you get so gorgeous?"

My reading tells me that we do NOT know how to raise intelligence, except in unusual situations where know of something specific that is depressing intelligence which can be remediated. Studying math won't make kids smarter, but it will make them better at math, at least up to a point. It's not news that academic achievement is a product of ability and effort.

I prefer not to motivate my children by telling them things I don't believe.

My reading tells me that it is possible raise intelligence to a certain degree with training. With DS6 what I chose to do is simply to discuss Dweck's research and its implications, so he won't "psych" himself out when things get tough. It seems to have worked to a large extent, though he still backslides into perfectionism sometimes. I also discussed the J. Renzulli three ring model with him, emphasizing effort further. (From my phone)

ETA: I'm at my computer now. I just wanted to add that I actually brought up the nature vs. nurture intelligence debate with my son in the course of my discussion with him, and we agreed that for purposes of motivation, it really doesn't matter what's correct in light of Dweck's results. Bostonian, perhaps just explaining the experiment in detail and the results would be enough, as a cautionary tale, without having to claim something in which you don't believe.