The Problem With Praise

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The Problem With Praise

• Cindy Sheets
• cindysheets_at_smsd.org
• Kathy Jones
• kathyjones_at_cableone.net

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Success Defined

• The achievement of something desired, planned, or
  attempted
• Success is the accomplishment of goals and
  objectives necessary to achieve a particular
  task, realize a particular dream or satisfy a
  particular need or want, for a particular period
  of time.
• Maryse A. Nelson

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Questions to Ponder

• Are you more intelligent than you were 5 years
  ago? 10 years ago? 20 years?
• Do you believe that intelligence is an innate
  ability and doesnt change?
• Do you believe that you can improve skills and
  abilities by practicing or learning new
  techniques?
• Do you believe that its important for your
  childs success to tell them that theyre smart?

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• A Columbia University survey learned that 85 of
  American parents think that its important to
  tell their kids that theyre smart.
• A large percentage of gifted students severely
  underestimate their own abilities and adopt lower
  standards for success. They expect less of
  themselves.

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Emily

• Enjoyed school, especially science
• High achiever, identified gifted
• Non-traditional science fair project
• I learned what I wanted to learn
• Self directed autonomy
• Always ready for the next challenge

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Linda

• Identified gifted 1st grade
• Hesitant to initiate activities
• Asked for help with everything
• Parents often resorted to force
• By 3rd grade, initiates activities and willing to
  take risks

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David

• High performance and praised by teachers and
  parents
• Never worked hard to achieve goals
• New tasks difficult avoided them
• Began to doubt his abilities
• Backed out of honors/advanced class opportunities
• Little engagement in classroom activities
• Grades began to drop
• Refused to ask for help or accept help

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Locus of Control

• Internal
• External

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Attribution Theory - Weiner

• To what do you attribute your success or failure?
• Luck
• Ability
• Difficulty of Task
• Effort

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Attributing the Cause of Events

• I just cant do this stuff. Im no good at it
• Lack of ability
• I didnt do so well, but I knew I wouldnt. I
  didnt study hard enough.
• Lack of effort
• I didnt know what the heck was going on and I
  got a B. The teacher must not have read my paper!
• Luck

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• Research suggests that teaching children and
  adults to attribute their successes and failures
  to internal, controllable events such as effort
  leads to people developing more control over
  situations and their life choices.

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Carol S. Dweck, Research StudyEffects of Praise

• 400 5th grade students, New York
• Randomly divided into two groups
• Given individual nonverbal IQ test consisting of
  puzzles (easy)
• Group 1. Praised for intelligence
• You scored ____. You must be smart at this.
• Group 2. Praised for effort
• You scored ____. You must have worked really
  hard.

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Part 2 of study

• Students given a choice
• More difficult test but youll learn a lot
• Easy test, similar to the first one
• Group 1 (intelligence)
• Majority chose the easy test
• Group 2 (effort)
• 90 chose the more difficult test

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Part 3

• Very difficult test (2 yrs above level)
• No choices. All students failed the test
• Group 1 (intelligence) were miserable
• Failure interpreted as evidence they werent
  really smart
• Group 2 (effort) stayed engaged in the test,
  very persistent
• Failure interpreted as their lack of focusing
  hard enough. Some even said this was their
  favorite test

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Part 4

• Tests easy as the first
• Group 1 (intelligence)
• Scored about 20 lower than first test
• Group 2 (effort)
• Increased scores by about 30

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Conclusions

• Emphasizing effort gives students a variable that
  they can control
• Praising intelligence sends a message Look smart
  dont risk mistakes.

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Theories of Intelligence (perception)

• Dweck in our self perception of what
  intelligence is like, we either hold an entity
  theory or incremental theory of that
  intelligence

Also called fixed or growth mindsets
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Entity TheoryIntelligence is Fixed

• Important to appear smart with little effort
• Need to achieve for specific performance goals,
  (which assess an ability)
• Low risk takers

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Entity (fixed)

• Failure will be perceived as evidence of low
  intelligence
• Develop goals based on being the best, or
  avoiding failure
• May believe circumstances are beyond their
  control and give up
• Past or present success does not ensure future
  success
• Those with success history may be most vulnerable
  (learned helplessness)

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David

• High performance and praised by teachers and
  parents
• Never worked hard to achieve goals
• New tasks difficult avoided them
• Began to doubt his abilities
• Backed out of honors/advanced class opportunities
• Little engagement in classroom activities
• Grades began to drop
• Refused to ask for help or accept help

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Incremental Theory (Growth)Intelligence can be
Changed

• Enjoy challenge even if makes them appear less
  smart
• Learning goals and persistence are valued
  (mastering new things)
• Ready for next challenge rather
• than repeating success

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Incremental (growth)

• Remain interested in learning and challenge even
  after failure
• Belief that Effort (through increased learning
  and strategy development) will increase
  intelligence

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Emily

• Enjoyed school, especially science
• High achiever, identified gifted
• Non-traditional science fair project
• I learned what I wanted to learn
• Self directed autonomy
• Always ready for the next challenge

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Dwecks Conclusions

• praise for intelligence rather than effort
  creates vulnerability in high-ability students
  that does not show up until they experience
  setbacks and failure

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Secondary Study

• Life Sciences Magnet, East Harlem
• Low performing in math
• Study Habits and Skills sessions
• Control group 2- 50 minute lessons
• The brain is a muscles and it gets stronger with
  effort and exercise
• Control group showed improved study habits and
  grades in just one semester

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So What About

• Self Esteem?

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Self Esteem?

• 15,000 scholarly articles 1970-2000 supporting
  connection between self-esteem and praise
• Reviews in 2003 only 200 met rigorous
  scientific standards
• None of these showed the connection

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Unrealistic Self-Expectations

• After self-esteem movement
• 95 of seniors said they will enroll in college
• 62 actually did
• Before self esteem movement
• 50 of seniors said they would enroll in college
• 50 actually did

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• The surest path to high self-esteem is to be
  successful at something one perceived would be
  difficult!  Each time we steal a students
  struggle, we steal the opportunity for them to
  build self-confidence.  They must learn to do
  difficult things to feel good about themselves.
  Sylvia Rimm

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Praise Whats Your Style?

• Simon Cowell
• Or
• Paula Abdul

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Wulf-Uwe Meyer Study observation of others

• Only children under age 7 take praise at
  face-value
• By age 12, teacher praise seen as evidence that a
  student needs help and encouragement and lacks
  ability
• Teacher criticism was interpreted as showing
  belief in students ability to do better

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Praise Pressure

• Liberal use of unqualified praise leads to
  students questioning themselves
• Is this right? Is this OK?
• Seeking reassurance
• Must keep up image to keep the praise coming
  become praise junkies

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Results of Over-Praising (Dweck)

• Become risk-averse
• Lack perceived autonomy
• Image maintenance becomes main concern
• May lie or cheat to maintain image
• Lack strategies for handling failure

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Enron Malcolm Gladwell

• Collapse of Enron due to talent obsessed culture
• Executives celebrated and rewarded for their
  innate talent
• Rather lie than admit to problems and work to fix
  them

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• Failure to live up to ones potential may be
  associated with an inability to take
• realistic risks.

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Benefits of Risk Taking

• Increases confidence about abilities
• Increases self-efficacy
• Develops skills for managing fears
• Provides practice in decision making
• Opportunity for growth and leadership

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Linda

• Identified gifted 1st grade
• Hesitant to initiate activities
• Asked for help with everything
• Parents often resorted to force
• By 3rd grade, initiates activities and willing to
  take risks

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Dr. Robert Cloninger Brain Research

• Ability to repeatedly respond to failure by
  exerting effort develops persistence and ability
  to delay gratification
• Brain actually develops circuitry for persistence
  with intermittent reinforcement
• Missing with constant reward (praise)

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• Parents should not shield or try to protect
  children from risks or hard work. Parents also
  need to allow children to experience the tensions
  and stress that rise from challenging ideas and
  high expectations.Olszewski-Kubilius, 2000

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• Extraordinary achievement is primarily attributed
  to nonintellectual factors, especially
  perseverance.

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In Risk-Friendly Environments

• Mistakes are viewed as opportunities
• Goals are stressed over procedures
• We are actively seeking change
• We are playful
• We expect individuals to set their own
  goals
• We allow people to choose their own risks

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But shouldnt we praise our kids?

• All Praise is NOT equal
• Praise CAN be effective
• Use the right kind of praise
• Use at the right time
• Not confused with encouragement
• Not confused with manipulation

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Good Praise Practice

• Be specific
• Constructive feedback
• Be sincere
• No empty praise
• Dont praise undeserved success!
• Praise the process not the person
• Strategies, decisions, work accomplished
• Praise at the END of the work process

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Helping our Children Meet Success What Can We
Do?

• Reward effort not perfection
• Reward risk and progress
• Applaud persistence
• Break tasks down into small steps
• Acknowledge learning not work
• Honor time invested
• Help them learn to prioritize

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Resources

• Social Emotional Needs of the Gifted What Do
  We Really Know? Prufrock Press, NAGC
• Self-Theories Their role in motivation,
  personality and development. Carol Dweck
  Philadelphia Psychology Press 1999
• Mindset The New Psychology of Success, Random
  House (February 28, 2006)
• The Problem with Praise
• http//www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/02/20070216
  _b_main.asp
• Why Praise Can be Bad For Kids by Anne Pleshette
  Murphy Jennifer Allen
• http//abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id
  2877896page1

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• How Not To Talk To Your Kids The Inverse Power
  of Praise, by Po Bronson
• http//nymag.com/news/features/27840
• The Effort Effect
• Stanford Magazine, March/April 2007
• http//www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2007/m
  arapr/features/dweck.html
• A Motivational Approach to Reasoning, Resilience
  and Responsibility (chapter of book)
• http//aim.psch.uic.edu/documents/Good.DweckCh.pdf
  
• Stanford University Research Report
• http//newsservice.stanford.edu/news/2007/february
  7/dweck-020707.html

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• Research Works by Carol S. Dweck
• Mueller, C. M. Dweck, C. S. (1998).
  Intelligence praise can undermine motivation and
  performance. Journal of Personality and Social
  Psychology ,75, 33-52.
• Dweck, C.S. (1998). The development of early
  self-conceptions Their relevance for
  motivational processes. In J. Heckhausen C.S.
  Dweck (Eds.), Motivation and self-regulation
  across the life span. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press.