Daily Tips for Families

Today's Tip for Families

10-24-2022

Praise Effort Rather Than Intelligence

It's common for parents to praise children for being smart. But research shows that doing so can actually hurt their learning.

In one study, a group of children were given a series of problems. Regardless of how they did, all the children were told they did well. The children were then divided into two groups.

Group 1 was told they did well because they were smart.
Group 2 was told they did well because they worked hard.

The children were then given a second set of problems to do. Regardless of how they did, all the children were told they did poorly.

Here are the results:

The children in Group 1 blamed their poor performance on lack of intelligence.
The children in Group 2 blamed their poor performance on a lack of effort.

On a later assignment, the children who were earlier praised for being smart chose tasks on which they knew they would do well. Their damaged self-esteem and fear of "not being smart enough" caused them to avoid learning challenges. The hard workers chose tasks they thought might teach them something.

The researchers concluded that children are more likely to stay motivated to learn when they believe that their concentration and effort will pay off.

Brought to you by:

Gwinnett County Public Schools