What to Praise when Assessing Learning

Before reading further, think if you would rather agree to the fact that anyone can change his/her level of intelligence or to the fact that one can't really change how intelligent he/she is.

The Experiment

Researchers divided 128 fifth-graders in two groups and gave them an IQ test. Both groups were told they did really well, but one group was praised for its intelligence ("You must be smart to solve these problems") and the other for its effort ("You must have worked hard at these problems"). Then, some kids were asked to agree or disagree with mind-set statements such as "Your intelligence is something basic about you that you can't really change" and others were asked to define intelligence.

In the second part the pupils were asked if they would like to work either on a challenging task that they could learn from or an easy one that ensured error-free performance. Next they worked on the same challenging problems and finally they were asked to report their scores anonymously.

Results

The kids praised for intelligence agreed to statements like the one above more often than kids praised for their effort. Moreover, when defining intelligence they made significantly more references to innate, fixed capacity, whereas the others made references to skills, knowledge and areas they could change through effort and learning.

Moreover, the kids praised for their intelligence were unenthusiastic about taking a challenging test and opted for the easy one, whereas 90% of the kids admired for their effort were eager for a more demanding task. On the second test the group praised for its effort performed significantly better than the group complimented for its intelligence. When reporting their scores 40% of the intelligence-praised kids lied compared to 10% of the effort-praised pupils.

To Remember

The "hard workers" got the message that they could improve their scores by trying harder, when the "smart" kids believed they should do well without any effort and as soon as they began to struggle with a problem they lost the confidence in their ability.

Praising intelligence builds the fixed mind-set that the intellectual ability is a predetermined trait. Praising effort (engagement, perseverance, strategies, improvement etc.) shapes the growth mind-set according to which intelligence is the result of new connections formed in the brain due to learning. The brain is actually like a muscle: the more is used, the stronger it becomes.

Therefore we should praise effort, for e.g. "I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies on that math problem until you finally got it" or "I liked the effort you put in. Let's work together some more and figure out what you don't understand".

Source:

• Dweck, C.S. (2007). "The Perils and Promises of Praise". Educational Leadership, vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 34-39. Retrieved from www.ascd.org on Sep 28, 2014
• Murphy, A.P. & Allen, J. (2007). "Why Praise Can Be Bad for Kids". ABC News online. Retrieved from abcnews.go.com on Sep 28, 2014

Best Studying Technique

When learning, would you say you remember more if you read the text several times, if you make a diagram to depict the relations between the ideas or if you test your knowledge after reading the text by writing down what you remember?

The Experiments

In one experiment researchers engaged 80 undergraduates in studying a science text under one of four conditions:

• single study period;
• four consecutive study periods;
• creating a concept map for the text, after being instructed about the nature of concept mapping and seeing an example;
• practicing retrieval after a study period by remembering as much as they could on a free recall test (learning time was exactly the same as in the concept mapping).

At the end of the learning phase students were asked to make a judgement regarding the percentage of the information that they would remember after a week. Then, seven days later they answered a test that included both verbatim questions that assessed the ability to recall facts and inference questions that required the ability to draw logical conclusions based on facts.

In a second experiment researchers sought to extend the previous one by using two types of text:

• description of properties, for example of different types of muscle tissues, and 
• description of events in sequence, for example of the digestive process,

and by having 120 students creating a concept map of a text, as well as practicing retrieving on another text. In the end half of them took a short-answer test and half took a map concept-creating test.

Results

In both experiments retrieval practice produced the best learning. In the first experiment concept mapping wasn't significantly better than spending more time reading (see figure below - A and B). Students' judgements of learning reflected little metacognitive knowledge about the benefits of retrieval practice. The participants predicted that repeated studying would produce the best long-term retention, while practicing retrieval would produce the worst (see figure below - C). In fact, the opposite was true.

Proportion of Correct Answers (A & B) and Students' Judgments (C)

The second experiment found the same correlation: students that practiced retrieval did much better than concept mappers, even when the test required them to construct a concept map. As the first time, they also erroneously predicted that concept mapping would produce better long-term learning than retrieval practice.

To Remember

It is well-known that active studying techniques such as concept mapping are important for learning, but retrieval of knowledge looks as a more powerful learning activity. It might has to do with changing the access to our memories by making what we recall more recallable in the future or with reinforcing the information in our brain by struggling to remember it. Nevertheless, there are obvious benefits to testing.

Source:

• Karpicke, J.D. & Blunt, J.R. (2011). "Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping". Science, vol. 331, no. 6018, pp. 772-775. Retrieved from www.sciencemag.org on May 3, 2014
• Belluk, P. (2011). "To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test". New York Times online. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com on May 3, 2014