The cerebrum -- which is just Latin for "brain" -- is the newest (evolutionarily) and largest part of the brain as a whole. It is here that things like perception, imagination, thought, judgment, and decision occur. I hope you are thoughtful as you leave your comments on this blog.
I found the article had a very similar message to that of Rick Lavoie's thoughts on motivation. Both Lavoie and Dweck show that the way in which you praise a child can effect the manner in which they are motivated and can succeed. The main difference is that the article was more heavily geared towards parents. It talked about not using the same negative labels towards yourselves or others and that parents shouldn't use praise just to protect their child from failure.
All of the findings and advice from the article are evidenced in Lavoie's techniques for motivating students. Being aware of the language we use when giving praise is an important and tricky thing. In my opinion, the fact that I am aware of it is half the work; the other half is implementing it on a regular basis.
Yea. Meg said it. This article was very similar. I pretty much envisioned the art table scenario the entire time I was reading it. Same stuff and it makes sense. You can't take away the fact that research sometimes can be inaccurate or geared to give a certain result, but this is something that the answer is clear and really could not be fabricated. It's something that I'm sure we have all been through at least once in our lives. I have been told millions of times by my mom that I do great under pressure and with last minute tasks. Sure, most of the time that is true, but I know that in high school, having this mentality I bombed a few last minute papers. I just thought I could do it because I had done it before and my Mom, as well as others, had stated how well I did on such a cramped time limit. Lavoie just went on and on about this for approx 50 bazillion pages - sorry, he rambled a lot - but generally they both gave the same gist. The research is both interesting and useful and I plan to implement this idea of proper-praising in both my classroom and my parenting. Let's just hope I remember.....
Like Megan and Alicia said, the article has a very similar take on the effects of praise on children as Lavoie’s book. Dweck stresses that praised should be focused on effort instead of skills displayed. Dweck believed that if we gave praise to children, as parents or students, that it would create a negative point of view towards effort. It was an interesting argument and I can see how that effect could be brought about. I also thought praise focused on skill sets could have a negative outcome in another way. In the example from introduction of Dweck’s article, those students who were praised for their accomplishments and not their effort may not have wanted to take the more challenging test because they did not want to risk “losing” that praise. After being labeled as a smart kid after their success in the first test, the second test only presented an opportunity to lose this new found positive identity. It is sort of a big-fish-little-pond mentality. After tutoring a few teens in recent years and being one not so long ago, I could see how this mentality persists. I believe Lavoie might have touched on a similar idea.
Like said above, I think Rick Lavoie and Carol Dweck are saying similar things. Basically that praise can hurt children, especially praise in being smart. Instead they both offer praise in effort which makes way more sense. You can always praise a child on their effort, even if they didn't give that much effort or do that good you can set up your praise to sort of "soften the blow of a criticism". Tell them the good things first and remind them of the things they missed or didn't do so good on.I remember some kids in high school not taking too kindly to criticism. I've always thought positive reinforcement is one of the best things you can do, but I guess I never really thought about how to actually give positive reinforcement. After reading Lavoie's book and what he says about praise, you definitely get a better idea of how to go about positive reinforcement.
One of the main similarities I found between Lavoie and Dweck is that praise is good but it must be used correctly. The language you use is extremely important. There is a big difference between "you did a great job since you're so smart" and you did a great job because you worked so hard." Just a few words can really impact the meaning and the way the child interprets the praise. It is important that children learn how to deal with shortcomings and the adult needs to play a role where they are supportive and help the child to understand what they did right and where they can improve their performance. As future parents and teachers we must use the right words to encourage our students and children to be successful. We should praise behaviors and actions so they are not afraid to fail or be unsuccessful and will try to achieve difficult tasks, because they will be praised for the hard work and effort and not only the outcome. I agree with megan that just being aware of this research is half the battle. It also makes me realize just how important a persons choice of words are, and while we may not be able to tell the difference, the research shows that the kids are significantly affected by our choice of words
As every one has already mentioned and I also agree with, the issue with praise is has to deal with who it is presented to the student. With almost anything in life you could say that too much of something can have negative effects. Drinking water is great, but too much can actually be lethal. So it goes to show that even an action such as 'praise' that has such positive immediate connotation to it, can be, if presented in the wrong way, harmful. The thought that comes to mind when reading this was very educational for myself, because I have noticed many teachers praise students by saying "you're so smart". I even have caught myself doing it. And like Professor Smith has mentioned in class, scientists read research and many teachers do not. I think this is a great example of one of the many situations in which teachers should go out and do some research because the consequences would be benefitial. It is one thing that I feel all teachers could agree upon is that they feel as though their students are not working hard enough and are lazy. Well if we praise them for when they do and show them that it means alot to us that they are working hard, maybe more students will catch on and do so-- If we are overly concerned with the final grade and consider those our 'best' students and praise them the most, i hate to say it because all students need praise, but they are not the ones that need it the most in this situation. So I agree that tweeking the words in which we use and how we provide praise to our students can be very helpful and will result in a positive outcome in the classroom. Both Lavoie and Dweck touched upon these in different ways providing, what I believe to be, valid and logical arguments.
I agree with all the above comments. The article and book have very similar messages. The one slight difference is that the article is geared toward parents and not teachers. Telling students they are smart and labeling them makes them less likely to take risks was the main idea of the article. Parents/teachers should praise a students effort and strategies and also be specific don't just say "Great job! Your so smart!" Instead say "I can see you worked very hard on that problem!". As the other students mentioned, I hope I remember this when I begin teaching!
WELL after reading this article I can confidently say that me commenting on this blog weeks after the rest of the class, is not my fault.. at all! Contrary to the idea that perhaps I have been flaky, I was just simply unmotivated to do this task because my whole life I was praised for my intelligence, thus conditioning me to not want to work because I believe I am naturally brilliant (I mean, I really am brilliant, but that's not the point) and subconsciously chose not to do the assignment in case my response made me sound dumb. Great *insert thumbs up image*
But anyway, I liked the article because it allowed me to reflect on my own school experiences and see how different praise affects kids, and also relate it to Rick Lavoie who basically tore apart the rewards/punishments motivational system we all grew up with. Both Lavoie and the article discuss appropriate types of praise and motivation, which can be hard for parents and teachers to distinguish between.
8 comments:
I found the article had a very similar message to that of Rick Lavoie's thoughts on motivation. Both Lavoie and Dweck show that the way in which you praise a child can effect the manner in which they are motivated and can succeed. The main difference is that the article was more heavily geared towards parents. It talked about not using the same negative labels towards yourselves or others and that parents shouldn't use praise just to protect their child from failure.
All of the findings and advice from the article are evidenced in Lavoie's techniques for motivating students. Being aware of the language we use when giving praise is an important and tricky thing. In my opinion, the fact that I am aware of it is half the work; the other half is implementing it on a regular basis.
Yea. Meg said it. This article was very similar. I pretty much envisioned the art table scenario the entire time I was reading it. Same stuff and it makes sense. You can't take away the fact that research sometimes can be inaccurate or geared to give a certain result, but this is something that the answer is clear and really could not be fabricated. It's something that I'm sure we have all been through at least once in our lives. I have been told millions of times by my mom that I do great under pressure and with last minute tasks. Sure, most of the time that is true, but I know that in high school, having this mentality I bombed a few last minute papers. I just thought I could do it because I had done it before and my Mom, as well as others, had stated how well I did on such a cramped time limit. Lavoie just went on and on about this for approx 50 bazillion pages - sorry, he rambled a lot - but generally they both gave the same gist. The research is both interesting and useful and I plan to implement this idea of proper-praising in both my classroom and my parenting. Let's just hope I remember.....
Like Megan and Alicia said, the article has a very similar take on the effects of praise on children as Lavoie’s book. Dweck stresses that praised should be focused on effort instead of skills displayed. Dweck believed that if we gave praise to children, as parents or students, that it would create a negative point of view towards effort. It was an interesting argument and I can see how that effect could be brought about. I also thought praise focused on skill sets could have a negative outcome in another way. In the example from introduction of Dweck’s article, those students who were praised for their accomplishments and not their effort may not have wanted to take the more challenging test because they did not want to risk “losing” that praise. After being labeled as a smart kid after their success in the first test, the second test only presented an opportunity to lose this new found positive identity. It is sort of a big-fish-little-pond mentality. After tutoring a few teens in recent years and being one not so long ago, I could see how this mentality persists. I believe Lavoie might have touched on a similar idea.
Like said above, I think Rick Lavoie and Carol Dweck are saying similar things. Basically that praise can hurt children, especially praise in being smart. Instead they both offer praise in effort which makes way more sense. You can always praise a child on their effort, even if they didn't give that much effort or do that good you can set up your praise to sort of "soften the blow of a criticism". Tell them the good things first and remind them of the things they missed or didn't do so good on.I remember some kids in high school not taking too kindly to criticism.
I've always thought positive reinforcement is one of the best things you can do, but I guess I never really thought about how to actually give positive reinforcement. After reading Lavoie's book and what he says about praise, you definitely get a better idea of how to go about positive reinforcement.
One of the main similarities I found between Lavoie and Dweck is that praise is good but it must be used correctly. The language you use is extremely important. There is a big difference between "you did a great job since you're so smart" and you did a great job because you worked so hard." Just a few words can really impact the meaning and the way the child interprets the praise.
It is important that children learn how to deal with shortcomings and the adult needs to play a role where they are supportive and help the child to understand what they did right and where they can improve their performance. As future parents and teachers we must use the right words to encourage our students and children to be successful. We should praise behaviors and actions so they are not afraid to fail or be unsuccessful and will try to achieve difficult tasks, because they will be praised for the hard work and effort and not only the outcome.
I agree with megan that just being aware of this research is half the battle. It also makes me realize just how important a persons choice of words are, and while we may not be able to tell the difference, the research shows that the kids are significantly affected by our choice of words
As every one has already mentioned and I also agree with, the issue with praise is has to deal with who it is presented to the student. With almost anything in life you could say that too much of something can have negative effects. Drinking water is great, but too much can actually be lethal. So it goes to show that even an action such as 'praise' that has such positive immediate connotation to it, can be, if presented in the wrong way, harmful.
The thought that comes to mind when reading this was very educational for myself, because I have noticed many teachers praise students by saying "you're so smart". I even have caught myself doing it. And like Professor Smith has mentioned in class, scientists read research and many teachers do not. I think this is a great example of one of the many situations in which teachers should go out and do some research because the consequences would be benefitial. It is one thing that I feel all teachers could agree upon is that they feel as though their students are not working hard enough and are lazy. Well if we praise them for when they do and show them that it means alot to us that they are working hard, maybe more students will catch on and do so-- If we are overly concerned with the final grade and consider those our 'best' students and praise them the most, i hate to say it because all students need praise, but they are not the ones that need it the most in this situation.
So I agree that tweeking the words in which we use and how we provide praise to our students can be very helpful and will result in a positive outcome in the classroom. Both Lavoie and Dweck touched upon these in different ways providing, what I believe to be, valid and logical arguments.
I agree with all the above comments. The article and book have very similar messages. The one slight difference is that the article is geared toward parents and not teachers. Telling students they are smart and labeling them makes them less likely to take risks was the main idea of the article. Parents/teachers should praise a students effort and strategies and also be specific don't just say "Great job! Your so smart!" Instead say "I can see you worked very hard on that problem!". As the other students mentioned, I hope I remember this when I begin teaching!
WELL after reading this article I can confidently say that me commenting on this blog weeks after the rest of the class, is not my fault.. at all! Contrary to the idea that perhaps I have been flaky, I was just simply unmotivated to do this task because my whole life I was praised for my intelligence, thus conditioning me to not want to work because I believe I am naturally brilliant (I mean, I really am brilliant, but that's not the point) and subconsciously chose not to do the assignment in case my response made me sound dumb. Great *insert thumbs up image*
But anyway, I liked the article because it allowed me to reflect on my own school experiences and see how different praise affects kids, and also relate it to Rick Lavoie who basically tore apart the rewards/punishments motivational system we all grew up with. Both Lavoie and the article discuss appropriate types of praise and motivation, which can be hard for parents and teachers to distinguish between.
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