What is your question and how did it arise?
Student Motivation :
More specifically, what are the effects of praising students in terms of
motivation?
I was first
intrigued by the effects of praising upon reading a couple of articles during
first term.
"Pedagogical Sensitivity and Teachers Practical
Knowing-in-Action by Max van Manen &
Five reasons to stop saying "good job!" by
Alfie Kohn."
It was interesting
to me because praising is something I do quite often when I coach and it is a
habit I originally intended on incorporating into my teaching as well. My reasoning being that praise acts as a
motivator, positive feedback, and a boost in confidence. However, after reading these two articles I
am not so sure of the benefits anymore, specifically long term benefits. I am interested to see further research on praising and motivation in general.
Why is your question significant(to you and/or to others)
I think as teachers
we often resort to praising as a method for motivation but we may actually be
hindering our students long term success by doing so. In addition, I think we unconsciously praise
students without carefully considering what kind of an effect it will have on
our students. Something as simple as
saying "great job" when a student answers a question correctly and
have powerful outcomes. By inquiring
into praising we can better understand when its appropriate, how to do it
properly, and most importantly, whether it truly motivates students or not.
What do you expect to find out
I expect to find
other, more beneficial methods for motivation rather than praising. I also expect to find a lot a research
indicating that praising doesn't necessarily fulfill our desired intentions. Furthermore, with praising being so habitual
for myself, I expect to become more aware of when and why I am doing so.
What resources will you draw on?
"Pedagogical Sensitivity and Teachers Practical
Knowing-in-Action by Max van Manen &
Five reasons to stop saying "good job!" by
Alfie Kohn."
I will also find other journal articles and hopefully interview some students and teachers.
Personally, I would try to keep praising as private as possible. I believe students can understand each other enough to see when someone makes a valuable contribution to the class. The student can also get a sense of praise from other students by judging their body language, therefore there is no additional need for the teacher to praise students in addition to what is already felt and known. If I really wanted the student to feel appreciated, I can always take them aside and comment on them personally without others in the class noticing.
ReplyDeleteI am really interested in this topic as a teacher, coach and parent. I look forward to hearing what you discover. At this time, I believe that the answer lies in two key self-reflection aspects: motivation for praise, and method of praise.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to motivation, teachers/coaches/parents (TCPs) frequently praise to increase a student's self-confidence or performance. TCPs also praise in order to encourage compliance, but for whom? Are TCPs trying to improve self-confidence or performance for the benefit of the student or the team or themselves? A class that attains high marks (on a relatively standardized test) will reflect positively on an educator. A team that behaves well be be more enjoyable to coach and again, reflect positively on the players and coach. While challenging, and contrary to the present social norm, it is imperative for TCPs to ask themselves why they are praising.
In terms of method of praise, is the traditional 'I like how you are all working hard on your assignment' yielding hard workers or individuals who require rewards for good behaviour? In Alfie Kohn's (2001) article "Five Reasons to Stop Saying 'Good Job'" he outlines alternatives to traditional praise which sound good in theory, but would take a very long time and strong dedication to implement. I have a lot of conditioned praising habits that I have been working at adapting, but it is a challenging process.
Hey Travis,
ReplyDeleteYou have a really interesting question that I've always wondered as a tutor. I tutor many students one-on-one and realized that some students really need the praise and others don't at all. One problem I have with praising students is praising them too often. I have a student where after every question I let them know that they did a 'perfect job.' However, we got to a question where they did it wrong so I let them know that they were close but they missed a step. After that, the student seemed very discouraged and was afraid to make a mistake after that (they didn't do work as efficiently and were scared to try other methods). For other students, the praise doesn't even affect them because they know if they've done a good job or not.
Of course, private tutoring is different than a classroom setting with peers and others so I can't really compare. However, if you knew that some students in your classroom needed that praise to boost their self confidence and others didn't would your feedback in the classroom reflect what you thought they needed? Do teachers praise students to give them motivation or is it more feedback? I find that with some of my students, I praise them so they don't feel like they're terrible at Math but others I do so to let them know how they're doing. I'm interested in what you find out and how you are going to give (or not give) praise in your own classroom.
Hi Travis,
ReplyDeleteYour topic is super interesting because I am definitely guilty of over-praising everything!
I know praising students publicly is definitely under scrutiny but I feel that it is the easiest way to motivate students to continue to succeed. However, I recently read "Five reasons to stop saying "good job!"" by Alfie Kohn and am surprised by many of the points he brings up. I definitely agree that a teachers needs to praise the correct way so that his or her praise does not do more harm than good!
I will be interested to see what you find because I would love to apply it to my own motivation and praising methods.
Ruth
Fascinating and important topic, Travis! I'd like to see you think a bit more about ways to investigate it further. You will definitely need to work from more than just those first two articles, of course. Think about conversations or interviews (with whom? Students, teachers, educational psychologists?) and other readings, etc.
ReplyDelete