Praising Neither Caesar Nor Kids
This is for anyone whose life touches a child’s. I know it’s lengthy, but worth the time spent.
Friday, March 9, 2007
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This is for anyone whose life touches a child’s. I know it’s lengthy, but worth the time spent.
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Ouch. Too true. “… a teacher who praises a child may be unwittingly sending the message that the student reached the limit of his innate ability, while a teacher who criticizes a pupil conveys the message that he can improve his performance even further.” Yup, that’s exactly why I do it. But what do I do about the e-mail I got 2 days ago, from a parent asking me to please praise her daughter for the extra work she had done to understand something about the moon?
Comment by Jennifer — March 9, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
Was this assigned or voluntary extra work? If she did it on her own means a couple of things. She either liked the subject matter, likes the challenge of learning something new or is a brown noser. In any event, the article is not suggesting that praise be removed, but that it be meaningful. The child can tell if it’s just a “good job” given just because. She needs to hear praise that is specific to the task so she can own it and apply it to her next challenge.
A nice approach might be to praise something specific about the work (I like the way you took the initiative to understand this on your own) and add suggestions where it could be improved (but did you consider…?).
Comment by Jen — March 10, 2007 @ 7:26 am
I love this. Jen asking Jennifer questions.
Comment by michael — March 10, 2007 @ 8:28 am
I guess that’s pretty much what I did. To be fair, the parent did not ask me to praise her, but asked for “any encouragement” I could offer. (I’m pretty sure it was a carefully worded criticism of me not having already offered enough encouragement, rather than an appreciation for my class having inspired her to go that far in the first place.) It also talked about her daughter “independently” doing all this extra work. When I talked about it with my student, she talked about her dad helping her figure things out by putting together various (homegrown) models with her. I ended up saying, essentially: “yes, that kind of trying things out with invented models is a great way to understand things better, and it’s something I can never do as well in the classroom as you can do on your own. I’m so glad you did it and told me about it.”
The studies in the article were actually described to our faculty this past fall. I’m glad to see a well-written article describing them; one that’s aimed at parents as well as teachers. I’ve printed it out and plan to re-read it before conference time and be prepared to share it with some parents. I don’t think I ever praise students for being smart, but I may tell parents that their kids are smart (or good at science) — and I suppose they turn around and tell their kids that I’ve said that.
Comment by Jennifer — March 10, 2007 @ 9:45 am
Jen, have you considered video taping one of your classes? The kids would love it. I’ve heard this is a great way for kids to look at the material in a new context. They say (not quite sure who “they” is) that you really digest material after the third time it’s introduced. Everyone, regardless of what they say, loves to see themselves on camera. They might be able to hear praise and criticism louder in this venue.
Comment by Jen — March 13, 2007 @ 9:20 am
I don’t think I could stand it.
It often occurs to me, that maybe the reason I feel like I’ve explained something over and over is that I teach the same thing to 4 classes. By the time I’m done, I know that material really well.
Comment by jennifer — March 13, 2007 @ 9:06 pm