Motivating Gifted Children for Challenge

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Motivating Gifted Children for Challenge

• Sarah McElwee
• University of Oxford
• CTYI Conference23rd February 2008
• sarah.mcelwee_at_psy.ox.ac.uk

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What well be discussing this morning

• The importance of challenge in the classroom
• The reasons why gifted children sometimes avoid
  challenge
• Dwecks theory of mind-sets about intelligence
• What parents and teachers can do to promote
  motivation and growth attitudes to learning

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The importance of challenge in the classroom (and
in life)

• Is challenge important at all?
• Education as a journey vs. an endurance test
• All children are entitled to an education that
  serves their needs and stretches them to the
  limits of their capabilities, while offering
  support to help them achieve this.

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A conundrum.

• Why do some very bright students underachieve in
  school, despite their many gifts? Why do others,
  who seem less bright, thrive and accomplish far
  more than anyone ever expected?
• Beliefs, motivation and how they are inter-linked

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The role of motivation

• Key ingredient in outstanding achievement
• Genius is 1 inspiration and 99 perspiration
• Extraordinary output stems from the ability to
  sustain intense commitment for long periods in
  the face of obstacles
• Goes against our stereotypical beliefs of what it
  means to be gifted

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• Lack of motivation in gifted children often
  sparks
• Anger
• Confusion
• Frustration
• in parents and teachers
• Gifted but not motivated?
• Thats just LAZY

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What lies beneath

• Whole host of psychological factors at work
  within the gifted child, based on their
  experiences of learning and how they are defined
  by society education system
• Perfectionism
• Boredom
• Self-esteem
• Beliefs about intelligence

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Characteristics of perfectionist students

• Procrastination
• Intense fear of failure
• All-or-nothing mindsets
• Dissatisfaction with work

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Students theories of intelligence

• Carol Dweck argues that children hold one of two
  views or mindsets about intelligence
• Fixed Mind-set
• You have a certain amount of intelligence and
  you cant do anything to change it
• Growth Mind-set
• Anyone, no matter who they are, can increase
  their intelligence performance substantially

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Can theories of intelligence be changed?

• It is necessary to praise childrens ability in
  order to make them feel good about themselves and
  bolster self-esteem
• 80 of parents agree with this statement
• Lets look at what praise for intelligence really
  does.

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Dwecks experiment

• Children given puzzles to solve
• First set challenging but well within their
  ability
• you must be smart at these problems vs. you
  must have worked hard at these problems
• Second set of much more difficult problems
  enjoyment? Explanation of difficulty?

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Effects with younger children

• Ability praise youre really good at this
• Goodness praise youre a good girl
• General approval Im very proud of you
• Effort praise You must have tried very hard
• Strategy praise you found a good way to do it
  can you think of other ways?

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Relevance to gifted children

• Gifted children are among those most at risk of
  non-contingent intelligence praise
• When tasks are easy, dont have to expend effort
• Praise follows for mysterious trait of
  intelligence
• Need to learn that they can master challenging
  tasks through effort over time, not that they are
  smart and praiseworthy when they do things that
  are easy for them
• Gifted girls especially at risk
• Feeds back into perfectionistic behaviour
  chasing the intelligence that wins praise

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What can parents do?

• Be careful of how you praise
• Do not praise for low-challenge, low-effort,
  no-mistake success.
• Acknowledge effort enjoyment.
• Ask questions that stimulate critical thinking.
• Demonstrate that you too find things hard
  sometimes and have to work to find the solution.

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What can teachers do?

• Communication aims clearly
• Show learning is a cycle -
• Model excitement in confronting a challenge
• Pupils afraid of making mistakes - they view the
  teacher as the top tier of assessment.
• Encourage self-evaluation and reflection on work.
• Teacher-expectancy effect

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The importance of challenge

• The less effort pupils have to expend on work,
  the more vulnerable they are to fixed theories
  of intelligence
• Intrinsic value in making mistakes.
• Nasty shocks loss of confidence later on

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What constitutes challenge?

• Opportunities for creativity, problem-solving,
  independence
• Avoidance of coasting BUT child must also be
  reassured of their capabilities
• Activities must be just outside the childs
  grasp.
• Avoid situations where the child will either be a
  winner or a loser but try to model dealing with
  competition effectively

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Learning to embrace the occasional tumble can
lead you to achieve new heights