Wellbeing

HOW2Learn - Why a growth mindset is critical in life - Part III

In a series of studies of both kindergarten‐age

students and 5th graders, children were given a nonverbal IQ test that consisted of ten moderately

challenging but doable problems. Most of the children performed well on the first ten problems. One third were given intelligence praise.

They were told, “Wow, you got eight right; that’s a

really good score. You must be smart at this!”

Another third were given effort praise: “Wow, you

got eight right; that’s a really good score. You must have tried really hard!” The control group was given results praise and told, “Wow, that’s a really good score.” And sure enough, when intelligence alone was praised, it put students in a fixed mindset.

The students were then asked, “What do you want to work on now? I have some easier things here that you could work on, or I have some challenging problems. They’re hard, and you’ll make mistakes, but you’ll learn some important things.” Most of the students who were praised for intelligence chose the easy task. “They’re not fools!” says Dweck. “They wanted to keep on looking smart. They wanted to keep that label.”

But the vast majority of the students praised for their effort wanted the challenging task. They wanted something they could learn from, and they weren’t worried about making mistakes. So right away the study had created one of the hallmarks of a fixed mindset by praising intelligence. “They said, ‘Don’t give me a challenge; give me something I can look smart on,’” says Dweck.

When the students were then given a series of more difficult problems, these results were magnified. Students who had been told they were smart now thought that having to struggle meant they weren’t smart at all. They thought they had low ability at the task. So their confidence in their ability, which is like self‐esteem, plummeted. Because again, if success meant they were smart, failure or difficulty meant they were not. “They were being taught to measure themselves by the outcome,” says Dweck. “We’d say, ‘Hey, you did it; you must be smart.’ They said, ‘Hey, I didn’t do it; I must not be smart.’”

But those who had been praised for their effort

thought, “I need more effort. These problems are

harder. You succeed through effort. I need more of

it.” This group remained very engaged with the task.

They tried different strategies, and their motivation remained high. At the end, asked to rate how much they enjoyed the problems, those who were praised for their intelligence showed a sharp drop‐off in their enjoyment once they hit the hard problems. Those who had been praised for effort showed no drop‐off and many of them said that the harder problems were their favorites. The students were also asked if they would like to take the problems home to practise. Among those who were praised for effort, most were eager to take the problems home, and had responses such as, “Could you write down the name so when they run out my mom can buy me more?” But those who had been praised for their ability had responses such as, “No thanks, I already have these at home.” As soon as they had to struggle, those who had been praised for their ability lost faith in that ability and any enjoyment in the task. Over three sets of tests, this same group—those who had been praised for intelligence—also showed a significant decline in their performance. So praising intelligence had made these students less intelligent.

Those who had been praised for effort, however,

showed a significant increase in their performance on the IQ tests over the trials. (The control group was right in the middle.)

But there was a further finding that was both more distressing and interesting. When asked to write anonymously about their experience, the students were also asked to report the scores that they had earned. Almost 40% of the intelligence‐praised children lied, reporting a higher score. “They lied in one direction, and one direction only!” says Dweck.

“And what this meant to me was that when children were praised for their intelligence, it became such an important part of who they are, it was so fundamental to their self‐esteem that they couldn’t even tell the truth on an anonymous piece of paper to someone they would never meet.”

Silver Phoenix Award Recipients

Congratulations to the following students who received their Silver Phoenix Award at the last school assembly. You all should be very proud of your wonderful achievements.

Gostwyck

Mille Hunt.