“Once you believe in yourself and you put your mind to something, you can do it.” – Simone Biles
“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.” – Venus Williams
Inspiring sentiments from two inspiring athletes. But is mindset really enough? The self-esteem movement thought that it was. After a few psychologists hypothesized that high levels of self-esteem result in lifelong success, teachers began to focus on boosting their students’ self-esteem throughout the 1980s and 90s. Red pens fell out of favor; motivational posters covered the walls; words of praise filled the classrooms. But when psychologists reviewed the research in the early 2000s, it turned out that efforts to increase self-esteem “do little to improve academic performance or prevent troublesome behavior.”
To counter the self-esteem movement, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck proposed that teachers should guide their students to develop growth mindsets. Dweck’s research suggested that students achieve more success when they believe they can change their abilities through hard work. In response to growth mindset research, many adults started following this mantra: “Praise the effort, not the outcome.” Unfortunately, this simplification creates a classroom environment similar to that of the self-esteem movement, where students are praised constantly and indiscriminately.
If students keep getting praised for working hard without making progress, they eventually realize that the adults in their life don’t think they can do any better. Even worse, such empty praise does not provide any new skills to help students overcome challenges. However much a student believes in himself, he will not magically develop his abilities by continuing to practice in the same ineffective way. The athletes quoted at the beginning of this post surely understood this concept. Though they emphasized self-confidence and effort, I doubt they would ever advise someone to pursue an Olympic gold medal without the guidance and expertise of a coach.
Carol Dweck recently realized that her growth mindset idea is often misunderstood. She clarified how praise should be balanced with support: “Praise the effort that led to the outcome or learning progress; tie the praise to it. It’s not just effort, but strategy…so support the student in finding another strategy…Students need to know that if they’re stuck, they don’t need just effort…You want them to know when to ask for help and when to use resources that are available.”
So what can teachers and parents do when students work hard but fail over and over? How can adults help when children get discouraged? Give them the tools to make progress. Teach a new approach. Explain the tricky concept in a different way. And then praise the effort that results in progress.
Developing Readers 