tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post7716898535167116701..comments2024-03-03T02:00:28.295-05:00Comments on Teaching Your Middle Schooler: Should We Refrain from Telling Our Children that They Are Smart?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-65790637705599641862011-05-22T22:34:37.361-04:002011-05-22T22:34:37.361-04:00All definitely true.
Maria and I had a discussion...All definitely true.<br /><br />Maria and I had a discussion about this offline. The problem with these studies is that you have no specifics about things like the content of the tasks being studied, which could have a big bearing on thing.<br /><br />For example, I could see my son, if he were in the praised group, turning down the opportunity to take the "higher level" test. But I really don't think he would do so because he was afraid of losing his "praise;" I think he would do it because he wasn't interested in the activity and/or wasn't interested in jumping through what he perceived as being someone else's hoops. So while there may be some correlation, it is hard to discover the motivation behind those correlations.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11164883668587344597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-40801483177775845532011-05-19T10:02:19.628-04:002011-05-19T10:02:19.628-04:00I strongly believe all discussions of abilities AN...I strongly believe all discussions of abilities AND hard work must happen in the context of particular meaningful tasks. For example, we recently discussed the need to write down intermediate steps, and compared ours. I need it because this particular side of my IQ is abysmal (short-term memory and processing). You may not need it for that task, because your abilities cover the requirements with room to spare. M needs it as an anchor to his attention and focus (because he tends to be more divergent, and the task requires convergent thinking).<br /><br />We need to match tools to our abilities and skills, on task-to-task basis. For that, we need to have meta-cognition: the knowledge of abilities and skills and tools.MariaDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00769513929584082597noreply@blogger.com