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recent studies have proven that praising a child’s effort over the childs acheivements is the correct way to raise a little person that will do well
by duncanawoods 12y ago
recent studies have proven that praising a child’s
effort over the childs acheivements is the correct way
to raise a little person that will do well
I think this claim is mistaken. The article backs the claim up with a link which discusses something different: whether to praise effort or praise attributes of the person e.g. "you are so smart!". Praising achievement is a third category of praise where consequences are assessed and not personal qualities.
I'm confident that positive and negative feedback about achievement are incredibly important moreso than acknowledging effort. Praising the attributes of a person is clearly just flattery so I don't know why anyone would do it or need a study to point it out.
Were you to praise effort and not assess achievement, you will train people to look like they are working hard rather than actually achieving anything and not give them the feedback that will help them truly excel.
- corin_ 12y agoI don't have sources but I'm sure I've read studies against praising achievement. I'm sure if combined well with praising effort it can work well, but it should be a way of helping judge effort, not praised for and of itself. For example if a child constantly gets Bs in a certain subject then getting an A can be an indicator that they've put more effort in - but the A itself shouldn't be the reason for the praise.
- duncanawoods 12y agoYep, effort\achievement shouldn't be considered as independent. What I do think is important is to kill dead this notion that achievement is not a necessary consideration for how to praise. For example: I would be cautious about praising: i) High effort but low performance due to repeating mistakes that have been pointed out before. ii) Low effort but high performance due to luck or the task being easy for the individual. I would find it important to praise: i) Low effort but improved performance due to a change in behaviour e.g. learning from previous experience. ii) High effort but low performance due to how novel or ambitiously challenging the task is for the individual.