¶ … Labeling Children: Gifted and Talented
New research suggests that complimenting children for their intelligence and academic performance may lead them to believe that good test scores and high grades are more important than learning and mastering something new (Mueller pp). According to research published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, praising a child's scholastic aptitude is generally meant to boost the child's academic performance, however it actually leaves the child ill-prepared for coping with setbacks (Mueller pp).
Six studies of 412 fifth graders was conducted by psychologists Dr. Claudia M. Mueller and Dr. Carol S. Dweck of Columbia University (Mueller pp). The researchers compared the goals and achievement behaviors of children who had been praised for their intelligence with children who were praised for their effort and hard work under conditions of failure as well as success (Mueller pp).
The psychologists demonstrated, through their studies, that commending children for their intelligence after good performance might backfire by making the children highly performance-oriented, leading to extreme vulnerability to the effects of subsequent setbacks (Mueller pp)....
While children who were commended for their effort tended to concentrate on learning goals and strategies for achievement (Mueller pp).
Mueller and Dweck also observed that children who were praised for their ability when they were successful actually learned to believe that intelligence is a "fixed trait that cannot be developed or improved" (Mueller pp). Those children who were explicitly commended after their successes were the children who tended to blame poor performances on their own lack of intelligence, yet when children were praised for their hard work performed poorly, they simply blamed their lack of success on poor effort and showed a precise determination to learn new strategies that would enhance subsequent performances (Mueller pp).
According to Dweck, lead author of the study, some of society's basic beliefs concerning how to increase a child's self-esteem and achievement are misguided (Mueller pp). Dweck notes, "Praising children's intelligence, far from boosting their self-esteem, encourages them to embrace self-defeating behaviors, such as worrying about failure and avoiding risks" (Mueller pp). Yet, when children are taught the value of concentration, strategies, and hard work when faced with academic challenges, "this encourages…
