Give specific feedback - if they’ve done a good job tellthem. Tell them they worked really hard at something(effort based) and how you know that, what you saw themdoing: “you didn’t stop working until your bedroom floor wasclear”.

Feedback on process and strategies – so they know what
they’ve done well up to that point and what to do more of in
the future: “The way you’ve organised your games on theshelf makes it easier to see the titles”.

Change your success criteria – to acknowledge the effort
thus far regardless of where they are in terms ofcompletion: “you’ve made a good start by changing yourbed”.

Use external rewards for effort rather than results, forexample for sticking to an exam study timetable rather thanthe exam results.

The above also highlights successful processes andstrategies (like concentration, organisation and timemanagement).



How to help your child grow their learning
power…

…WHY?
The world is changing rapidly and we cannot teach our children now

Research suggests feedback based on effort, process andstrategies enhances performance, including in exams.

what they may need in 10/20/30 years time – we just don’t know. Gone

And… avoid giving feedback followed by but – this has theeffect of negating any positive feedback (‘you’ve tidied yourroom but you need to put the rubbish in the bin’). Use andinstead (‘you’ve tidied your room and you need to put therubbish in the bin’).

throughout our working life. Workers of today and in the future need to

are the days of learning a skill set and staying in the same job
develop the skills and habits of learning – of knowing what to do when
they don’t know, and of sticking at it… We need to help our children be
effective learners rather than just acquiring knowledge.

Neuroplasticity
Advances in neuroscience have evidenced the increase in neuralconnections when we engage in purposeful practise – that is,
working at the edge of our comfort zone and keeping at it actually
grows our brain. We call this neuroplasticity. Not everybody
can be Einstein but everybody can get smarter if they work at it.

The type of praise we give has an immediate impact on a person’s
motivation. Carol Dweck found that praise based on ability (such as‘clever boy’; ‘you are good at maths’) actually reduces motivation.
Whereas praise based on effort and strategies used (such as, ‘I see you
broke the task down into steps, which helped you to know where tostart’) increases motivation and engagement with learning.
Interestingly, when a young person is praised for theirintelligence/natural ability they are more likely to give up when the goinggets hard – they don’t have the strategies to overcome challenges andthey don’t want to risk failure and no longer being valued as ‘clever’.

Mindsets
There are two ways of viewing human intelligence and abilities.
People tend to have either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.
It has long been a commonly held belief that how smart you are, or
any talents you may have, are dependant upon what you were bornwith. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. This is a fixed view ofintelligence.
In reality, it is qualities like persistence and effort (often describedas ‘grit’) that determines how successful we are almost irrespectiveof our ‘intelligence’. Those who believe their intelligence can growwith effort and perseverance have a growth mindset.

When children have a growth mindset they tend to welcome challenge
and have increased perseverance. As adults we can encourage a growthmindset through what we value in their performance and the type offeedback we give.

So, how do we help our children develop their ‘grit’ andgrowth mindset?

Sharing the power of YET – challenge, perseverance, practiseand effort makes your brain stronger and smarter. Understanding
this helps develop a growth mindset. It’s not that you can’t doit…just that you can’t do it yet.

Embrace failure, mistakes and challenges as opportunities forlearning. Persevering and working out how to do something
grows your brain and raises confidence and motivation. It alsomeans you have pushed yourself to the edge of your learning
rather than staying with what is safe and familiar.

PraiseRecent research has shown that praise does not always have thedesired effect and, in some circumstances can be detrimental toengagement with learning. It all depends on what is being praised
and how it is given.