It's widely accepted that teachers and parents should praise the effort kids make – rather than praise their innate ability – if they want their students and children to be successful.
"I will do my very best" during a math exam, for example, can actually improve test scores for some kids.
The Dutch researchers studied 212 children ages 9 to 13 years old – an age when researchers said negative feelings about students' abilities at school become more common – and asked kids about how competent they felt they were at math.Immediately after completing the first half of the test, they were randomly assigned to talk to themselves -- either focusing on effort , focusing on ability , or using no self-talk at all. Afterward, the children completed the second half of the math test.
"But until now, we didn't have a good idea of whether this helped children's achievement. We discovered that children with low self-confidence can improve their performance through self-talk focused on effort, a self-regulation strategy that children can do by themselves every day."Toddlers and preschoolers often do so out loud, but kids don't stop when they get older, the researchers said.
"When children with negative competence beliefs work on mathematics problems, they are prone to anticipate and worry about failure. They experience challenge as a signal that they lack ability, triggering disengagement from the task and worsening performance," the study said.
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