Praise, effort and smarts

Very interesting article in the New York magazine on The Power (and Peril) of Praise. In short the article starts to dismantle conventional wisdom on praising kids for their inherent abilities, and instead recommends refocusing praise on effort.

Randomly divided into groups, some were praised for their intelligence. They were told, “You must be smart at this.” Other students were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard.” . . . Then the students were given a choice of test for the second round. One choice was a test that would be more difficult than the first, but the researchers told the kids that they’d learn a lot from attempting the puzzles. The other choice, Dweck’s team explained, was an easy test, just like the first. Of those praised for their effort, 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. Of those praised for their intelligence, a majority chose the easy test. The “smart” kids took the cop-out.

Lots of meaty stuff here, and as one of those "smart" kids that did worse the higher I went in school, I relate to a lot of it from the inside, and I'm thinking a lot about what I might do differently as a teacher. Well worth the read for anyone who teaches, trains, or . . . well, trains.