Growing up there was a chant that we were taught that went "g double o-d, j-o-b, good job good job" and then we would clap our hands together twice and repeat. We did this chant in class, at dance practice, or really any time someone did a "Good Job". I never thought that saying this could do more hurting than helping but after reading Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" by Alfie Kohn I learned that this is a "sugar-coated control." It is a way of doing something to children to get them to comply with our wishes. While it can be effective for a while it isn't working with kids or teaching them what makes a classroom or other setting function smoothly or how others are affected by our actions. Researchers have found that kids who are praised for doing well at a create task tend to stumble at the next task.
After reading The Difference Between Praise and Feedback by Anya Kamenetz I learned that too much praise can create a fixed mindset in which the child will shrink from taking on any kind of challenge or effort, and maybe even destroy their sense of self worth. Praising traits can lead to a talent that is fixed which makes the kids less willing to take on new challenges but the idea of reinforcing effort can cause for growth mindset. When you provide positive reinforcement for a desired behavior the child might feel that if they don't preform that desired behavior then they are not worthy of your love. The best thing to do is providing helpful, detailed, encouraging feedback and appreciation to what they are doing , and listening to what they are saying.
After reading both of these articles I feel as though I learned a lot. I work in a daycare where there is a lot of praising that takes place, I now feel that I am able to take some of this information back with me to work and display effort reinforcement.
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Hi Olivia!
ReplyDeleteI liked reading your thoughts and past personal experiences on giving feedback. I thought it was really clever how you connected the articles to your own life, both when you were a kid and now when you have the ability to help provide feedback to other kids at the daycare you work at. I think the concept of praising effort instead of praising "innate talent" is really important, since I think our generation really only received praise for talent which led to lots of us giving up hobbies or passions when we thought we weren't good enough. I think it's really neat that we're working to change that for the next generation!