1. Helping Students to be Academically Successful
Pamela M. Jett, Ed.S.
North Oldham High School
GATES Coordinator

2. Session Goals Explore current research Learn about: Discuss next steps
Motivation
Praise
Effort
Mind-set
Discuss next steps

3. The Perils and Promises of Praise
Carol S. Dweck
Educational Leadership
October 2007

4. Premise & Background Research question: Premise for research:
Is it true that praise has inadvertently done something to hold back students?
Premise for research:
Educators hold two beliefs:
1. Praising students’ intelligence builds confidence and motivation to learn
2. Students inherent intelligence is the major cause of achievement in school

5. Fixed or Malleable?
Praise is intricately connected to how students view their intelligence.
There are 2 mind-sets:
Fixed – belief that intelligence is a fixed trait
Growth – belief that intellect can develop through effort and education

6. Fixed Mind-set Traits Have a certain amount of intelligence
Are excessively concerned with how smart they are
Seek opportunities to prove their intelligence
Avoid situations that may disprove their perceived intelligence
Desire to learn takes a backseat

7. Growth Mind-set Traits
Effort has a direct effect on academic achievement
Believe that intelligence can be developed over time with additional effort
Not worried about how smart they appear
Are willing to take on challenges
Have a “stick-to-it” attitude when it comes to work

8. The Two Faces of Effort Fixed Mind-set Traits:
Care more about how they will be judged
Will reject opportunities to learn if they might make a mistake
Try to hide mistakes
Are generally afraid of effort, since effort makes one feel dumb
Don’t recover well from setbacks
Will decrease effort and consider cheating

9. The Two Faces of Effort Growth Mind-set Traits:
Care about learning
Effort is a positive thing
When a mistake is made, it gets corrected
In the face of failure, one will escalate efforts and look for new learning strategies
Fosters the growth of ability over time
CONCLUSION: Those with growth mind-sets outperform their classmates with fixed mind-sets.

10. The Effects of Praise
Studies have consistently found that praising students’ intelligence gives them a short burst of pride, followed by a long string of negative consequences.
Praise for intelligence tends to put students in a fixed mind-set, whereas praise for effort tended to put students in a growth mind-set.

11. Study Design & Procedures
Task 1: Work on challenging problems
students that were praised for intelligence lost their confidence and struggled
student that were praised for effort remained confident and eager
Task 2: Work on less challenging problems
students that were praised for intelligence did poorly and performed worse
students that were praised for effort showed excellent performance and continue to improve

12. Conclusions
Process praise kept students focused on ways to stay engaged with the work.
A growth mind-set created motivation and resilience and led to higher achievement.
Positive changes in study habits and motivation were a result of learning about growth mind-set
Keeping students focused on the process of achievement helped student gain confidence.

13. Next Steps Questions for discussion:
What information from this presentation was most helpful?
What ways do you think you can take this information and use it?
What additional information would help you?

14. Resources http://www.brainology.us/
Dweck, C. S. (2007). The perils and promises of praise. Educational Leadership 65 (2),