How Can I Help Slow Learners? This chapter spent the beginning of the chapter explaining how students think of themselves in different ways based on their ability. Some students think that learning is genetic/nature and others think it is environmental/nurture. Students that think it is genetic may be afraid to work hard as it makes them look like they aren’t very smart. The last part of the chapter was spent explaining how teachers can help all students believe that their hard work will pay off to increase their intelligence.
I thought that the studies that they conducted on twins to try and decide if intelligence was based on nature or nurture was akin to answering which came first, “the chicken or the egg”. Were the twins, although raised in separate homes, similar in intelligence because they sought out similar environments to surround themselves with based on nature, or were they similar in intelligence because they were genetically similar.
The quote that had the most impact on me was, “The results showed that those who had been praised for their ability (“you’re smart”) were more likely to describe a fixed view of intelligence than those who were praised for their effort (“you did well because you worked hard”), who were more likely to describe a malleable view of intelligence.” I liked this quote because it gives me suggestions of how to work with students.
I enjoyed the latter part of the chapter the most when the implications for teachers were discussed. The idea that it is important for students to believe that their hard work can pay off to help them become smarter is crucial. The message that it is important to praise a student’s efforts rather than high performance was to me the most important message of the chapter. By praising effort that leads to high performance a teacher is giving the student the message that they are in control of their intelligence.
My final thoughts on the chapter were that the Implications for the Classroom section are vital to helping all students reach their full potential. Those main ideas:
• Praise Effort, Not Ability
• Tell Them That Hard Work Pays Off
• Treat Failure as a Natural Part of Learning (by role modeling it as we all have times of failure)
• Don’t Take Study Skills for Granted
• Catching Up Is the Long-Term Goal
• Show Students That You Have Confidence in Them
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