BSEM

Relationships is a key Berry Street Domain and consists of 9 components or strategies to enhance teacher and student relationships. Research repeatedly identifies student-teacher relationships as a critically important element supporting effective teaching and learning. Supportive, clear bonds with teachers provide the student with the emotional safety to achieve success in a realm that might feel foreign or unknown. 

One component of the Relationship Domain is Process Praise vs Person Praise. Giving a student praise in the classroom can help students feel valued and motivated while also helping to build a positive classroom environment. The difference between the two strategies is that Person Praise comments on the student and can often be seen as vague by commenting things like “good work” or “I love that”. Process Praise, on the other hand, is specific and acknowledges the student's effort, strategies, or actions that contributed to the success of the task. These may be examples like “ Well done, you stayed in your seat the whole time” or “ You got seven out of ten questions correct, that is fantastic”. Using Process Praise allows students to acknowledge themselves as capable learners and understand their intelligence as incremental, which in turn enables them to take on challenging tasks and set new goals. Providing any Praise to students is great, focusing on the positive reinforcement, however, Process Praise has more powerful outcomes than something not as specific to the student such as, Person Praise. 

Bimbadeen staff across the school are transitioning to using Process Praise where it will become a natural part of their teaching pedagogy, if it is not already. Feel free to try this at home - “ I love the way you have tidied your room without me asking” or “Well done for finishing all your homework”. If you are wanting your child to begin their cleaning, or their homework, try using Golden Statements in the previous Newsletter. Fingers crossed it works for you!

Thank you ,

Olivia Maestri and Marty Gill 

Berry Street Education Model Leader and Inclusion Leader