This is PART 5 in a series on student well-being. Throughout this series, I will explore what recent research has revealed about ways to create an environment in which all students can thrive.
For this series, I will be diving into my file of half-written articles and dust-covered books to learn more about topics like mastery learning, youth mental health, culturally responsive teaching and learning, culturally proficient SEL, the use of praise, the psychology of learning, equity in grading, and universal design of learning.
For the past three decades, researchers have been studying non-cognitive factors affecting student motivation. During this time, Carol Dweck's groundbreaking studies regarding student mindset have rocked the world of education. Her research began with the following question:Why do some students shy away from challenges and give up while others seek out challenges and become more invested in the face of failure?
Over the course of six studies, Carol Dweck and Ellen Leggett asked students to complete a series of tasks of varying difficulty to see how they responded to failure. First, they asked students to complete a moderately difficult task. The students were then praised for completing the task; however, what the conditions for which they were praised differed. Some students were praised for their intelligence and others were praised for their effort. The students were then asked to complete two more sets of tasks. Set 2 was much more challenging for the students. Set 3 was the same level of difficulty as Set 1.
Not surprisingly, the students performed worse on the second set of more challenging questions. They were harder questions! What is surprising is that the students who were praised for their intelligence not only performed worse on the second set of problems, they performed worse on the third set of problems as well - even though these questions were the same difficulty level as the first set!
What Dweck and Leggett concluded was that the students' behaviors were the result of differing orientations to failure and that the type of praise given can dramatically affect a student's mindset and resilience. In this post, I am going to share my take on Dweck's research and its implications for the use of praise on academic tenacity.
“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.” - Carol Dweck
Academic tenacity consists of the mindset and skills that allow students to focus on long-term or higher order goals and withstand challenges in pursuit of these goals. It's about working hard, working smart, and working for a long time. It allows students to look past their immediate wants and needs and focus on long-term goals. It gives them the will to withstand challenges and persevere in pursuit of their goals. Research about how students react to frustration reveal that there are several non-cognitive factors that affect a student's ability to learn over the long-term. These include: the student's beliefs about themselves, their goals in school, their feelings of social belonging and their self-regulatory skills (Dweck, Walton & Cohen, 2014, p.4-5).
Fixed v. Growth Mindset
As we learned in the last post, attribution theory attempts to explain how individuals attribute or explain their successes and failures. Identifying patterns in attribution can help explain past behavior and how it could affect the future. Dweck believes that our attribution style is born from our sense of self. According to her research, there are two ways to view oneself; an entity view of oneself and an incremental view of oneself. The entity view of self views the self as stable. This is indicative of a fixed mindset. Some examples of entity-based thought are:
- “You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can’t really do much to change it.”
- “Your intelligence is something about you that stays the same.”
The incremental view of self views the self as malleable. This is indicative of a growth mindset. Individuals with an incremental view of the self do not internalize their failures. Some example of incremental based thoughts are:
- “Intelligence is something that we develop over time, through effort.”
- “People can learn to be more intelligent in their lives.” (Sheldon, 2013)
According to Dweck, a student's mindset shapes their core achievement goals. It determines if their goals are performance-based or learning-based. Students with a fixed mindset view intelligence as a fixed entity. They often pursue performance goals in which they can demonstrate their competency. Students with a growth mindset view intelligence as malleable. They often pursue learning goals in which they can build their competency.
Praise and Goal-Setting: Praise is closely linked to how students view their intellectual ability. When a student is praised for a stable trait, like intelligence, it can lead to a fixed mindset. These students become excessively concerned with how smart they are. They are more fearful of making mistakes, become less willing to work on new skills, are more prone to cheat, and less confident than students with a growth mindset. They view failure as a personal reflection of who they are. The establishment of performance-based goals promotes competence. These individuals are focused on proving, not improving.
Students who are praised for their efforts are more likely to develop a growth mindset. Praising the process of learning can lead to increased levels of engagement and perseverance. Students are able to identify strategies and apply that they have used in the past to help them overcome challenges. It also fosters motivation, leads to increased effort, a willingness to take on challenges, increased self confidence and a higher level of success. Intelligence is viewed as a trait that can be improved over time. The establishment of performance (or learning goals) promotes competence enhancement. These individuals are focused on improving, not proving.
Based on her research, Dweck argues that when praising students we should stress their developing traits over their talents. We should acknowledge their strengths and identify how their traits played a role in their success. We should talk about learning as a process rather than as an end goal. We must "focus on the learning process and show how hard work, good strategies, and good use of resources lead to better learning" (Gross-Loh, 2021). This is more than just encouraging students to try hard. A necessary component of building a growth mindset is to focus on the process of learning, recognize the impact of effort on the learning process, AND identify the strategies used that led to their success.
Academic Tenacity
There are specific interventions that can be used to build academic tenacity in students. In Academic Tenacity Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning, Dweck, Walton and Cohen detail strategies that can be used in any class to foster academic tenacity. If you have time, click on the link above and read the entire document. I cannot speak highly enough about the quality of this resource. It should be required reading for all educators. Listed below are some interventions designed to strengthen student tenacity.
Neuroplasticity: Share the research with your students about how they learn. Teach them about neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and create new connections over time, and how fundamental aspects of intelligence can be enhanced over time. In one set of studies, students were divided into two groups each receiving a six-session workshop. The control group's workshop focused on study skills. The experimental group's workshop focused on study skills AND a growth mindset. Students who were exposed to growth mindset training showed a sharp increase in their math scores when compared to the control group (Dweck, Walton, Cohen, 2013, p.15).
Social Belonging & Value Affirmation: Key to a student's tenacity is whether or not they feel a sense of belonging in school. Feeling connected can lead to increased student motivation, performance, and overall well-being. Teacher's can create an environment of belonging by being authoritative, yet caring, connecting with the students lives outside of the classroom, and by facilitating a community of learning and cooperation within the classroom. A value affirmation intervention can increase a student's social connectedness. This intervention is designed to help students identify things that they value in themselves and what makes them valuable in a school setting. An example of a value affirmation intervention is to rank their personal values and explain why they are important to them (Dweck, Walton, Cohen, 2013, p.19).
Self-Relevance: Connect what the students are learning to the larger world. They need to see the relevance of schooling to themselves and society as a whole. Real-world purpose helps build tenacity because it shows the connection between what is being learned and a higher purpose. An easy way to do this is to periodically ask the students how the material that they are studying can be applied to their own lives or their future self.
Good Teaching: Good teachers and schools foster academic tenacity. They establish high standards for all students and explicitly teach the link between effort and competence. They provide substantial feedback and provide mastery experiences for their students. They guide students in goal-setting and self-management. They foster self-determination by supporting student autonomy and providing the students with the structure needed to help them succeed. They encourage students to see themselves as agents in their own growth.
If you look up tenacity in the dictionary, you will see that there are different definitions of tenacity. It could mean that someone has a firm grip, is determined, or has persistence. Tenacious people do not give up easily and we now know is that academic tenacity can be taught. Students thrive in environments that are supportive, caring and have high expectations. I would love to hear how you foster tenacity in your own classrooms. Please share in the comments below.
Be Well,
Cori
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Other Posts in this Series:
Resources
Decades of scientific research that started a growth Mindset Revolution. The Growth Mindset - What is Growth Mindset - Mindset Works. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/
Dweck, C. S., Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2013, November 30). Academic tenacity: Mindsets and skills that promote long-term learning. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED576649
Gross-Loh, C. (2021, August 2). Don't let praise become a consolation prize. The Atlantic. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/12/how-praise-became-a-consolation-prize/510845/
Sheldon, K. (2013). Positive motivation: A six week course. Positive Acorn.
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