Psychology as The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Carol Dweck composed this short article on December 2007. She is Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She has actually held professorships at Columbia University and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her latest book is State of mind. In this article she go over the subject of raising smart children. Her theory is that with more than three decades of research study an overemphasis on intelligence or talent and the ramification that such traits are innate and fixed-leaves individuals susceptible to failure, afraid of challenges and unmotivated to discover.

The article discuss different group studies, along with a couple of case studies. One case research study, showed a young guy, with excellent grades in school, was applauded for being intelligent by his moms and dads. Later on the young boy began to believe school was easy, and did not work as tough. His grades eventually plummeted and never rose once again. One group research study was on elementary trainees.

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Some were given easy problems with praise for getting them remedy. Others were provided difficult issues with appreciation emphasized on the effort. The study showed that kids with praise to effort attempted harder to fix problems. This kind of learning is known as a growth mind set.

Realizing there are different types of trainees not only describes their failures in a different way, however they also hold different theories of intelligence. Helpless individuals think that intelligence is a fixed characteristic, and you only have a certain amount.

The mastery-oriented, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and tough work. They wish to learn above all else. Teaching people to have a" growth mind set" who motivates a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or skill produces high achievers in school and in life.

Parents and teachers can engender a growth mind set in children by praising children for their efforts or persistence, rather than for their intelligence. By telling success stories that emphasize hard work and love of learning, and by teaching them about the brain as a learning machine. Some examples of this are; You did a good job drawing. I like the detail you added to the people’s faces. You really studied for your social studies test. You read the material over several times, outlined it and tested yourself on it. It really worked!

On a group study they tested several hundred fifth graders on a nonverbal IQ test. They praised half the children by their intelligence, and the other half for their effort. They found that the ones praised on intelligence encouraged a fixed mined set. These children did not want hard questions. They wanted simpler ones. The other group, that was praise for effort, actually wanted the harder questions.

In conclusion the article has shown, based on theory, that telling your children they are intelligent gives them a fixed mined set. Praising your children for their effort gives them a growth mind set. Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For instance, many young athletes value talent more than hard work and have consequently become un-teachable. Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs without constant praise and encouragement to maintain their motivation. If we foster a growth mindset in our homes and schools however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become responsible employees and citizens.