Every teacher will have in their classroom at least one student who is highly self motivated and able to challenge themselves to meet and exceed expectations. But the majority of students will be less concerned with achievement and content to cruise along doing what needs to be done to get by, and no more. How can we ensure that these students meet their targets too?
One of the most popular methods, and one which I think is most often mis-used, is praise. There is no doubt that appropriate praise can inspire a child, but used wrongly it can either have no effect or actually have a negative effect.
For example, children don’t need to be praised for doing something that they enjoy doing. Even if they do it well, a very simple ‘good job’ will suffice, or, preferably, specific praise for a specific part of what they have done should be offered. Children need a level of sincerity in praise and subconsciously know that doing something they like doesn’t require the effort that doing something they are not keen on takes. Over praise for an easy task can be construed as implying that you didn’t actually think they were capable of achieving a result, even though it was simple, and therefore the child can infer that you think they aren’t that bright! I recently heard about a child who had been nominated for an award at school for eating her lunch nicely! While I can understand that it might be desirable to praise something like that we really need to have an expectation that a school child is able to eat properly – I am fairly sure all the other kids weren’t spitting food at one another, or dropping it all over the floor, so in this case the praise isn’t necessary. If, however, after lunch she had voluntarily wiped down the tables and cleared up then that would have been worthy of at least a ‘thank you, well done’.
To make sure that your praise doesn’t appear insincere always try to be specific about what you are praising – ‘I love the way you put the detail into the leaves on the tree you painted’, rather than just ‘awesome picture’. Defining what you think is great will give them a glow of pleasure that you have noticed the effort they made, and will also inspire them to try even harder to make the next picture, or task, even better. Descriptive praise provides the child with feedback, they know what is good, and what can be improved and help can then be given with how to improve. The language used is moderate and shows the child that there is room to experiment and move on – if the praise was overly extravagant then the child might feel they had already achieved all they were capable of and either stop, or be scared to, try any more.
It can be tempting, probably more as a parent than as a teacher, to used comparative praise – “You got 9/10, X only got 7!” However praise used in this manner will only be motivational if the child continues to come first. Once they are beaten they feel helpless or hopeless, and, worse in the long run, become poor losers, lacking the ability to cope with perceived failure. When you set children a task, therefore, praise their ability to master the task, to figure out a solution for themselves, for thinking outside the square, rather than being the first to finish or gaining the highest mark. Children are more than capable of putting competitive pressure on themselves without having an adult do it too, and reinforce its importance. Praising their ability to problem solve for themselves will motivate them to move on and try more with harder tasks.
The praise I have talked about so far has been intrinsic. Most teachers will also use extrinsic praise – stickers, house points etc. and these are also a valid and useful method of praising and motivating. It is necessary to look at what they are awarded for though, and how the children will perceive this. For instance, if the maths genius in your class gets his stickers for solving some complicated equation, and the kid next to him gets one for keeping his pencil sharp the message that the pencil sharpener gets is that the standard of achievement expected from him is considerably lower than that expected of his friend – it is very hard for humans to exceed the level of their expectation, so if they set their bar low then they will consistently perform at a low level. Have a level of consistency for the extrinsic reward system and use the intrinsic praise to maintain the desire to move onwards and upwards in the students.
I know that in the classroom every day there are a hundred and one things demanding attention and time, but if you take just a couple of moments to think before praising then everything you say to your students can help them grow and achieve more. And, for the principals and managers, don’t forget this works for your staff too! Everyone enjoys meaningful praise and it makes for a happy environment. Now, I’m not going to say ‘good job everyone’, but I am going to say ‘thank you for reading this and I hope it helps!’