Causes

Learned Helplessness

"The learning or participation of independence between one's behavior and the presentation and/or withdrawal of aversive events." (p. 674)

A study performed in 1973 by Dweck and Reppucci demonstrated that following failure, certain groups of children felt little desire to perform their expected response. Despite the fact that these kids had the motivation and capability to do so. The children who gave up in the face of failure displayed the following attributes:
- - - They took less personal responsibility
    - For any responsibility they took for their failure, they blamed their lack of ability rather than their lack of effort. (p. 674)

This blaming of "uncontrollable" causes (like ability or intelligence) is an example of learned helplessness. These children felt that they would not succeed because they had failed before, so why would they bother? Much like Seilgmen's dogs, who gave up on their goal and succumbed to their shocks.
We often see this in everyday life, when people or students say things like "I'm not a math person" or "I only succeeded because I had help." This is simply untrue; the ability to succeed depends on the effort of the person.
In a later study, Dweck discovered that students who were taught to attribute failure to their insufficient effort used their previous mistake as a cue to escalate the effort put in. (p. 683)

How to help

"...Errors should be capitalized upon as vehicles for teaching the child how to handle failure." (p. 684)
Discourage beliefs that intelligence is fixed, use faliure not as something to be ashamed of, but something to learn from. Encourage growth mindsets.

(Dweck, C. (1975). The role on expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(4), 674-675.)

Praise

The main pattern of the article:

Beliefs about intelligence > Motivation > Behavior

Fixed Mindset: Fixed Mindset > Motivation to look smart > Avoids challenges, dislikes effort, gives up easier due to setbacks.

Growth Mindset: Developable intelligence > Motivation to learn and improve > Seeks challenges, values effort, persists after setbacks, and tries new strategies.

Beliefs about intelligence:
1. Fixed Mindset: Beliefs intelligence is an inborn trait that can't change much.
2. Growth Mindset: Beliefs intelligence and abilities can develop through learning and effort.
How students view challenges:
1. FIxed Mindset: Challenges can feel threateing because struggling may make them feel unitelligence.
2. Growth Mindset: Challenges are seen as oppertunities to learn and improve.
Beliefs about effort:
1. Fixed Mindset: May believe that needing to work hard means they lack ability.
2. Growth Mindset: Sees effort as necessary for developing skills and abilties.
Response to mistakes and setbacks:
1. Fixed Mindset: May become discouraged, give up, blame others, or avoid difficult work after failure.
2. Growth Mindset: Is more likely to keep trying, use new stradegies, and seek resources to improve.
Type of praise students recieve:
1. Praising students for being "smart" can reinforce a fixed mindset.
2. Praising effort, stradegies, persistence, and choices can encourage a growth mindset.
Whether students can see their progress:
1. When students can see their effort leads to improvment, they are more likely to devlope motivation and a growth mindset.

(Dweck, C. S. (2007). The perils and promises of praise. Educational Leadership, 10, 34-39.)

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