Praise your children for their effort, not intelligence

Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, has devoted years to prove that one of the key elements of successful education is the ability to learn from mistakes. However, we often teach the opposite. If a child makes mistakes, is not very smart. The set does not make mistakes, and also precisely why we praise him for being ready. Few people are praising others for their effort, not innate ability.

Dweck conducted an experiment with more than 400 children from twelve schools in New York, were subjected to a very easy test consisting of a non-verbal puzzle. Once completed, the experimenter said the note to the child, followed by a phrase of praise. Half of the children were praised for their intelligence, the other half, for their efforts. Then they were allowed to choose between two different tests. The first option is described as a series of difficult puzzles, but told the children that if they tried, they would learn a lot. The other option was a simple test, similar to what they had done. When designing the experiment, Dweck had imagined that the different forms of praise would have a rather moderate. At the end of the day, it was just a phrase.
However, it soon became clear that the kind of compliment that became the fifth graders dramatically influenced subsequent choice tests. The group of children congratulated for their effort, 99% chose the set of difficult puzzles. For their part, most of the kids praised for their intelligence, they decided on the easier test. When we praise the intelligence of a child, we are actually getting the message: be smart, do not risk making mistakes. Dweck The following experiments also suggest that this fear of failure also inhibits learning. With the same group of group of children were subjected to another test, this time very difficult to see how they responded to the challenge.

Those who had been praised for their effort in the first trial, worked assiduously to solve the problem, engaging with great enthusiasm. However, children praised for their intelligence is quickly discouraged because they considered the inevitable mistakes as signs of failure, perhaps, deep down, they thought, were not ready. The final series of tests showed the same level of difficulty than the first. In any case, students praised for effort showed significant improvement: their average score increased by 30%. As these children were willing to accept challenges (although at first it meant missing), ended up paying a much higher level. This result was even more admirable when comparing with students who had been randomized to the group "ready" scores dropped an average of almost 20%. For children "ready", the experience of failure had been so daunting that actually experienced a setback.