Effort or Result?

Talent is natural or it can be developed?

To develop high performer students, praising effort achieves way more than praising results. If we do it the right way, praise can be incredibly motivating, encouraging, inspiring. However, if we take the wrong approach praising can actually have the opposite effect.

The difference lies in whether we assume student’s skills as an innate ability or the result of hard work and effort.

Here we arrive to the one million dollar question.

Talent is natural or it can be developed?

According to researches, there are two approaches to talent:

1.      The belief that intelligence, ability, and skills are inborn and relatively fixed (we "have" what we were born with).

2.      The belief that intelligence, ability, and skills can be developed through effort (we "are" what we work to become).

The difference lies on how we praise our students.

When we praise students for their achievements or when we criticize them, we face the first approach. Students come to see every mistake as a failure. No immediate results means failure. They can lose motivation and even stop trying.

When we praise students for their effort and application, we face the second approach. We help to create an environment where students feel anything is possible, as long as they keep working to improve.

Let us replace "You are really smart” for "I have faith in you” or “You are a hard worker”, “I have never seen you give up”, “I know you will get this".

The best way to improve students’ performance is to create and foster a growth mindset. They will also be more willing to take more risks.

When they understand that failure is just a step on the road to eventual achievement, risks are no longer something to avoid.

Risks and failures will be expected steps on the way to learn.