Praise was thought to boost self-esteem until it was shown that certain kinds of praise, specifically praise for intelligence, actually caused children to not try so hard. The children figured if they could do a task easily and be called smart then if a task was difficult they must be dumb. This made children unmotivated to do challenging tasks because they were so focused on maintaining their status of "smart" or "intelligent".
When a child is obsessed with maintaining and continually reproving this status of intelligent he no longer delights in the learning process. The child becomes solely motivated by the acceptance of peers and teachers and he becomes afraid to fail. This is the wrong mentality for students to have if they want to be capable of higher order thinking and creativity.
There is a way to praise children that is constructive. When you praise a child for the effort they put into their task by saying "you must have worked really hard, well done" you show that the means is just as important as the ends. Also, when you are specific about what a student has done well and what they might need to improve on it also helps instill this idea of effort showing intelligence rather than just innate ability.
I like your ideas here! Being specific about praise and praising things that are under a student's control are both very good strategies. It's also important to make sure praise is given only occasionally so that students don't become dependent on extrinsic factors for motivation.
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