The Secret To Raising Smart Kids In “The Secret To Raising Smart Kids” Carol Dweck argues that you shouldn't raise your child to believe that he or she is smart, but instead praise them for their hard work and dedication to get good grades. A child who is raised by hearing that he or she is smart all the time will only let them grow up to think that he or she is smart. They require a fixed mind-set so they will believe that they are intelligent because their knowledge and skills are present. A study that Dweck discovered performed in the 1990’s showed that 85% of parents believed that praising a child’s intelligence was important for boosting their self esteem. An example of how to raise a child is to give them room to grow on their own
As Dweck explains, children who are praised for their intelligence does not want to learn hence develop a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is where people believe that their qualities such as talent and intelligence are essentially fixed traits. Such people would only concentrate on documenting their intelligence instead of looking for ways for developing the same. In addition, these people make the assumption that their intelligence would make them successful. On the other hand, a growth mindset is where people are aware that it is possible to develop their abilities through hard work and dedication. When I was in Grade 7, a teacher encouraged all students that they all had the ability to perform well in science. After the initial interaction, the teacher was aware that a certain percentage of the class performed way below average; yet, he did not water down their spirit. I remember the way he used to acknowledge even some insignificant improvement made in his tests by comments such as “You are making good progress so far”. Primarily, this teacher focused on the perseverance, strategies, and efforts the students put towards improvement as opposed to praising talent (Dweck 5). The result was that we changed our attitude and focused more on self-improvement.
In Carol Dweck’s article titled, “Brainology” Dweck discusses the different mindsets that students have about intelligence. Some where taught that each person had a set amount of intelligence, while others were trained that intelligence is something they could develop and increase over time. in Dweck’s article she writes, “ It is a belief that intelligence can be developed that opens students to a love of learning, a belief in the power of effort and constrictive, determined reactions to setbacks” (Dweck pg. 2). Dweck is talking about a growth mind-set in which is how students perceive the growth of knowledge and that no one person is born with a certain amount of intelligence, it too can be trained and developed over time. By introducing Dweck’s ideas of a growth mind-set to students, students will enjoy learning and be less devastated by setbacks, because they know they can develop intelligence. Dweck also writes that students with a growth mind-set, “believe that intelligence is something that can be cultivated through effort and education. They
When you praise your students, what words come to mind? Intelligent, smart? According to the article “How Not to Talk to Your Kids” by Po Bronson, these words may do more harm than good. When labeling a student “smart”, they are more likely to rely on their intelligence and disregard the importance of effort entirely. Alternatively, students should be commended for their effort. Effort-praising advocates working hard to get the results you desire. Praising students for their effort can promote them to challenge themselves, strain less, and develop growth mindsets.
Meaning that when children grow up with praise such as “oh you must have been so smart to get an A on that test”, instead of “you must have worked really hard on that lesson”, children could take the praise to their intelligence the wrong way and think that since they are “smart” instead of their effort on a task which will cause them problems in the future and they might want to give up and quit. I have seen this first hand and this has actually happened to me before, so I know from experience that this could have a negative effect impact on a student not just students in elementary school but also adults who are going to college or young adults who are looking for a job. In contrast, some students love to get that kind of compliment but they would always end up expecting that so when I work with children I will be complimenting them on the effort they put into everything that they do. From now on, I will be praising children on their effort and not on their
Also, in Carol Dweck’s research article “Brainology”, she states the subtitle “Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn”. She dishes mindsets and achievement, how do students learn these mindsets, and so on… … Dweck suggests, “Many students believe that intelligence is fixed, that each person has a certain amount, and that’s that. We call this a fixed mindset, and, as you will see, students with this mindset worry about how much of this fixed in intelligence they possess”. Many students believe that the challenge encountered in learning is a threat to their growth path. She put forward two different minds of the ideological study contrast, the finds showed that students studied with a growth mindset were more interested in learning and
After reading the article, “The Myth of ‘I’m Bad at Math’” I began to think about my past learning experiences and realized that my opinions on this subject have changed drastically over the years. For the most part, I felt like this article made a lot of good points, especially considering my own experience with believing in incremental vs. fixed intelligence. Basically from the beginning of my schooling I was taught to think that some kids were just smarter than others, and that that couldn’t necessarily be changed. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that I was considered a “smart” kid: I caught onto most learning concepts easily, so people told me that I was “smarter” than other kids. If I had been a child who learned a different way, I think that I would have been taught to believe in the incremental model of intelligence very early on as to not discourage me from growing as a learner (which was exactly what teaching kids that
In pages 49-104 of How Children Succeed, Tough continues to assert on the importance of non-cognitive abilities as predictors to success. He explicates on the role of motivation and grit, and how these character traits will lead to academic success. Throughout the readings, Tough introduces and substantiates his assertions with the studies of the M&M experiment, coding- speed test, and Duckworth’s Grit Scale. While I do agree with Tough analysis for the significance and positive outcomes associated with motivation and grit, I do not in particular agree with his conclusions on the M&M experiment. In essence, I agree with Tough that development in character is crucial for short and long term success. However, I also believe his argument to lean towards the theoretical aspect, and does not provide the reader the tools for a heuristic approach to modify or refine the listed traits.
In The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley investigates the education systems of three of the world’s highest performing countries offering insight into the components necessary to raise education in the United States from its current mediocre place on the world stage. By involving three teenage American exchange students, Ripley gained access to firsthand experience of the familiar US system as compared to the highly competitive systems in Finland, South Korea and Poland. The author proposes that, although the systems vary greatly, commonalities in cultural valuation of education, rigor and teacher quality have made students from these three countries the “smartest kids in the world.”
we do not offend but fit in. The way we are nurtured depends on our
In Anti-Intellectusim: Why We Hate the Smart Kids by Grant Penrod he argues that intellectual kids are looked down on in today’s society and not respected. He makes a valid argument with good points, but he bases his opinions off of his high school experiences and the world is much different after high school. His idea of intellectual kids not being praised in society is false. This can be compared to the idea of social classes in society. The intellectual kids would be at the top of the social class ladder with the access to all the privileges.
As a society we believe that praise to children has a positive effect on their development. We often children for their accomplishments I hopes that it will continue to boost their self-esteem and motivation. Adults often rely on praise to influence children behavior. Although praise often had positive results, it should be carefully administer to ensure that children are being praised correctly. Various psychological and social implications play a role in how children are praised.
Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.
After numerous years of study and experiments completed by physicians, educationalists and researchers. The outcome is overwhelmingly positive in favor of having children use the internet. Technology endorses that students can take on some of the responsibility for their own learning and can take personal action to focus on thinking as a vital element to their education process. Research suggests that the internet does make children smarter because it allows children to have higher self confidence, build fine motor and cognitive skills, increase visual memory, and use trial and error to problem solve on their own.
The ongoing debate on whether nature or nurture is responsible for intelligence seems to be a never-ending argument. There will probably be no definite answer to this argument any time soon, but answers such as Dr. Bigot's prove how intolerant of other opinions people can be. To say intelligence is entirely based on genetics, or one's environment, for that matter, is utterly extremist. An interaction of both nature and nurture is responsible for intelligence.