Encouraging students to try hard things and make mistakes

Alexander Russo at This Week in Education points to a New York Times piece on how people process mistakes and their own sense of success or failure.

“Studies with children and adults show that a large percentage cannot tolerate mistakes or setbacks,” [Prof. Carol Dweck] said. In particular, those who believe that intelligence is fixed and cannot change tend to avoid taking chances that may lead to errors.

Often parents and teachers unwittingly encourage this mind-set by praising children for being smart rather than for trying hard or struggling with the process.

For example, in a study that Professor Dweck and her researchers did with 400 fifth graders, half were randomly praised as being “really smart” for doing well on a test; the others were praised for their effort.

Then they were given two tasks to choose from: an easy one that they would learn little from but do well, or a more challenging one that might be more interesting but induce more mistakes.

The majority of those praised for being smart chose the simple task, while 90 percent of those commended for trying hard selected the more difficult one.

In the comments on the TWIE piece, Teacher Leaders Network‘s John Norton links to a related piece by a TLN teacher talking about how he encourages his students to “do hard things.” Some of his suggestions:

- Use portfolios to help them see progress
- Use rubrics to help them clearly understand expectations
- Model high quality work.

Meanwhile, in the TEN discussion forum, lapstrauss, a new teacher, is struggling to get her students to try hard things and be invested in their own learning:

My kids are not used to thinking.  They are more comfortable with book work.  They want points to be associated with everything that they do.

Have advice for her?  Click here.  (Don’t forget to log in).

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