Raising Smart Kids
Learning to grow
There was a recent article about raising smart kids in Scientific American Mind (Vol 18, No.6). The main idea conveyed was the need to foster a ‘growth’ mind set in learners.
Apparently, the key to success at school is not so much intelligence as it is effort.
Research suggests that while our society values superior intelligence and ability, an over-emphasis on intellect or innate talent can leave students vulnerable to failure, fearful of change or unmotivated to learn.
Teachers, parents and educators need to teach people a growth mindset which encourages individuals to focus on effort rather in intelligence or talent.
Effort is what produces high achievers in both life and at school. This can be done by emphasising hard work, the love of learning, but most importantly teaching students about the brain as a learning machine!
When we teach kids the importance of trying and overcoming obstacles we create in them a mindset of growth. When we reward them for effort rather than their intelligence they are more able to bounce back from failure and try harder to achieve positive results.
In some ways children praised for their intelligence rather than their effort are more likely to not try when faced with a challenge. I recall one student who was told from an early age that he was gifted. There was no doubt he was — I did the WISC myself and his IQ score was over 130! But what happened when he was faced with writing a story in grade 5 that he found difficult? He simply gave up, didn’t try, cried and ran out of the room.
You see, when we tell kids something, they tend to believe it!
If we constantly tell them how good they are, sure we boost their self esteem; even foster a superior sense of self, but what happens when adversity strikes? They fear not being good enough, kids often fear failure so much that often they will not even try. They don’t want to disappoint, they don’t want to fail!
Unfortunately when a teenager gets a test or an assignment back, they look at the grade, compare it to their friends and make a simple judgement that they went well or not so well. Teachers might write next to the mark, “great effort, you tried really hard”, but they are programmed to look only at the grade. If it is an A or a B they are usually happy (although many are unhappy with a B!) anything below this is not so good.
By the very act of giving a grade to a student, we are pre-determining their ability to try, experience success or failure or develop a growth mindset.
Why not try to teach young people how to learn from mistakes and enjoy the processes of learning and discovering rather than trying to tell them how smart they are? That way we teach students how to be life-long learners, not just how to pass tests.