Hello, 2nd grade families!
Last year, I shared some information about the power of praise and how it can positively OR negatively impact your child. A child that hears, "You're so smart!" may be less apt to embrace a new challenge than a child that is told, "You work so hard!" If you'd like a refresher, check out the video below:
Carol Dweck has been a pioneer in some amazing research and, as of April 2016, she and psychological scientist Kyla Haimovitz have published another very important study on how parents' views on failure can predict a fixed or growth mindset in children.
The study, "What Predicts Children's Fixed and Growth Intelligence Mind-Sets? Not Their Parents View of Intelligence but Their Parents Views of Failure," was published in the journal Psychological Science. The study concludes that a child's view of his/her own intelligence is shaped by how parents view a child's struggles and setbacks. As Haimovitz states, "Our findings show that parents can endorse a growth mindset but they might not pass it on to their children unless they have a positive and constructive reaction to their children's struggles."
For example, parents who typically show concern when a child comes home with a poor test score may convey to the child that intelligence is mostly fixed. However, parents who focus on learning from the poor score convey the message that intelligence can be built through hard work and improvement.
What is interesting to me is that a child's mindset is not found to be affected by a parent's (or teacher's, for that matter) belief on intelligence, but rather their view on failures. For me, it reaffirms the importance of celebrating mistakes as opportunities for learning in our classroom!
You can read more about this study here.
In closing, here is another great video by Carol Dweck on the power of the word YET. This is a TED talk from 2014 that is still very, very relevant today. Take a look!
How do you address mistakes and failures with your children? Does this reaffirm some of your current practices, or cause you to rethink how you view failure? Comment below...I'd love to hear what you think!
:-) Mrs. B
Sources:
Association for Psychological Science. "Seeing the benefits of failure shapes kids' beliefs about intelligence." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160428132136.htm>.
