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I don't think it's worth praising effort nor results. The real thing that should be praised imo is measurable improvement.
by tabeth 9y ago
I don't think it's worth praising effort nor results. The real thing that should be praised imo is measurable improvement.
- dalbasal 9y agoSeems sensible to me. Improvement is the proverbial "learning to learn" lesson. It's also motivating and being motivated by improvement is a great mental habit. This is what testing should be focused on, IMO. Creating some visibility for the learner on long and short term progress, and a "reward" for improvement. The canonical system (IMO) for this is Kano Jigoro's judo belt system and its descendants. Works great for kids. Seems like we could do it for math or reading too.
- icebraining 9y agoWhat does that mean in practice, though? Take learning: is simply having learned more an improvement? Then almost any kid qualifies. Is it learning better/faster than before? Then what happens when the kid reaches a very high level and eventually plateaus? Do you stop praising them despite being one of the best?
- tabeth 9y agoThat's more of a pedagogical question than one with a concrete answer. To your last point: I don't think being the best is something that merits praise, necessarily. A 10000% improvement, whatever that means to you, is probably more "impressive" than being the best, but only seeing fractional gains.
- tertius 9y agoFor children, what makes makes effort into measurable improvement is guidance/teaching.
- rimliu 9y agoNo amount of teaching will lead to improvement if there is no learning.
- tertius 9y agoNo amount of effort, without guidance, will lead to anything either. It's a combo. And guidance is required for learning. In the extreme edge cases all the guidance required may be written though, I won't argue against that.