Can children have fun while learning? (DW#381)
Apr 28, 2018
Do your children enjoy learning?
During their research on the impact of mindset on children, Dweck and her colleagues found another benefit of having a growth mindset: The researchers found that the kind of mindset the child had not only determined their relationship to failure, but also predicted whether or not they would enjoy learning.
When the children in the study were given sets of questions to answer, all the children enjoyed the easier round of questions which they could effortlessly answer.
As the questions got more challenging however, the children who were praised for ability no longer had any fun, while the children who were praised for working hard not only still enjoyed the problems but even reported that the more challenging the questions became, the more fun they had!
The researchers also noticed that the children who were praised for ability improved their performance as the problems got harder while those praised for being smart did worse as the test became more challenging, discouraged perhaps by their own success-or-failure mindset.
One more reason why parents and educators must focus on praising effort rather than ability.
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