My daughter was struggling with a case of back-to-school jitters. Her older cousin had described the challenges of her own fourth-grade year and now my 9-year-old was dreading long division and fractions.

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be easy,” I told her. “You’re really smart, you know.”
She looked doubtful, but I was convinced my assurance would boost her confidence. Yet as she tackled more difficult work, I could see her thinking, “If I’m smart, why is this hard?” I’d tagged her with a label she would fight to keep, even if that meant avoiding new material and mistakes inherent in the learning process.

Rather than prep kids with assurances that they’re smart, it’s more helpful to praise their efforts to learn and master new material, says Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Kids who believe that success depends on their intelligence or talent may lose motivation when work is no longer easy for them, and avoid challenges that are part of the learning process.

By praising effort and hard work, parents set kids up for task persistence, willingness to take risks and tolerate mistakes, and a zest for learning. Dweck found a different picture when kids believed that intelligence is a “make or break” factor.

She gave fifth-graders a nonverbal IQ test, then linked their scores with either intelligence or effort. Some students were told, “That’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.“ Others were praised for their efforts: “Good score. You must have worked really hard.“

Kids praised for their brain power avoided more difficult problems, preferring to stick with easier work. When given harder problems, they doubted their abilities and didn’t want to risk their “smart” reputations. Their scores on easier problems even declined from previous results on equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for their efforts were eager to try more challenging problems. For them, challenges offered learning opportunities.

Talent versus hard work
Take time to examine your own beliefs about talent and brain power. Is intelligence ability a fixed trait? Or can skills be expanded and strengthened through education and hard work? Dweck terms these views fixed mind-set and growth mind-set. The fifth-graders told that their scores were related to being smart tended to develop a fixed mind-set. They chalked up mistakes to lack of ability, and felt powerless to change.

Having a growth mind-set gives kids a leg-up on handling challenges, whether they’re facing calculus class, soccer tryout, or a violin lesson. Students will benefit by applying the growth mind-set to academic work, according to Dweck. Even exceptionally bright kids shouldn’t rely solely on intelligence to succeed. She tells kids that the brain is a “learning machine” with neurons that can grow new connections, paving the way for new skills.

Dweck compared students whose math grades had declined during the first year of junior high. Some kids received instruction in study skills only; others were taught study skills in addition to learning how to apply the growth mind-set to school work. The results? The math grades of those who learned only study skills continued to drop. In the other group, math grades improved.

To recognize your child’s abilities, try these strategies:

• Praise the process your child used to meet his or her goal. Instead of saying, “You played great at the game,” praise your child’s efforts to get the ball.

• Link your child’s academic success with effort, not to intelligence or talent.

• Encourage children to practice, study, develop strategies, and be persistent.

• Tell kids stories about achievements that resulted from hard work. Not all math geniuses are born brilliant — some first fell in love with the subject, then developed skills that they needed.

• Send a positive message. “You can meet your goals. You can master material by working hard.”

• If your child continues to struggle, line up extra help.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.