I hope a few of you can take a little time to read the article below. The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids -- New York Magazine (thanks to Quaid for the link) http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
Why am I suggesting it? Well it has a lot of good background on what motivates children to excel at life. The article discusses the common "Positive Self-Esteem" theories that, as the article argues, are ineffective and even cause children to do less with their talents as a result of receiving positive feedback. Obviously I can't do a 5 page article justice in this email, but what I learned from the article is that it's not helpful to simply say "good job" when a child does well. It's more important to show that their success is a direct result of their effort. “When we praise children for their intelligence,” Dweck wrote in her study summary, “we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” (taken from first paragraph on page 2) So perhaps we should think of ways we can encourage effort in the activities we create? I know this may not be possible, since some games just aren't designed to do much more than play through right now, in any case it's probably a good thing to keep in mind as we go. ~Karlie _______________________________________________ FourthGradeMath mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/fourthgrademath
