Provided that praise is perceived as sincere, it is particularly beneficial to [intrinsic] motivation when it encourages performance attributions to controllable causes, promotes autonomy, enhances competence without an overreliance on social comparisons, and conveys attainable standards and expectations.
Performance Attributions: Praise effort, not ability. If you praise ability, there may be long-term costs "when children later experience failure in the praised domain." Additionally, do not praise children for accomplishments that are easily achieved by others, as such children "may view praise as an indication of their low ability."
Autonomy: Praise that is information, not controlling, can increase intrinsic motivation. Informational praise: "You did very well on the problem," "Compared to others, you did very well on the problem." Controlling praise: "You did very well on that one, just as you should" or “I haven’t been able to use most of the data I’ve gotten so far, but you’re doing really well, and if you keep it up I’ll be able to use yours.”
Competence and Self-Efficacy: This is informational praise that "conveys evidence of personal competence." Examples: “Your strategies are among the best I’ve seen so far,” “You are pretty good at this; You really did a good job.” However, the praise shouldn't convey confidence by primarily "making social comparisons," as this "may result in an overdependence on normative comparisons and less perseverance when faced with setbacks."
Standards and Expectations: Not much research here, but praise shouldn't convey standards and expectations that are too high or too low.
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Pittman, T. S., Davey, M. E., Alafat, K. A., Wetherill, K. V., & Kramer, N. A. (1980). Informational versus controlling verbal rewards. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6(2), 228-233.
- Compared to a no-reward control, the informational verbal reward enhanced interested in task engagement, but the controlling verbal rewards did not.
- Informational verbal reward: "Compared to most of my subjects, you're doing really well," "You did really well."
- Controlling verbal reward: "I haven't been able to use most of the data I've gotten so far, but you're doing really well, and if you keep it up, I'll be able to use yours," "You did really well, I'll be able to use y our data."
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How Praise Can Motivate or Stifle -- by Daniel T. Willingham
Praise may also be insincere if the purpose is not to congratulate the student, but rather to control him. As it sounds, "control" in this case means that the praise includes language meant to direct what the student does. Several studies have compared the effect of controlling praise (usually including a direction of something the student should do, such as, "Good job on your journal entry; you should write that legibly every day") to similar praise without the controlling phrase (such as, "Good job on your journal entry; it was very legible"). Results typically show that that praise increases later motivation to engage in the praised task, but controlling praise reverses the effect (Deci, Koestner, and Ryan, 1989).
For example, in one study, Audrey Kast and Kathleen Connor (1988) had third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders complete some word-search puzzles. (Previous work had shown that children in these age groups enjoyed these puzzles.) Three days later, the puzzles were returned with feedback written on them. Some children were given praise feedback: "Good. You did very well on this game. You were right on almost all the puzzles." Other children received praise-with-control feedback: "Good. Keep it up. I would like you to do even better on the next game." A third group received no feedback. All children then completed a brief questionnaire meant to measure how interesting they found the puzzles. The results showed that children in each grade receiving praise-with-control reported that they found the puzzles less interesting than children receiving praise or children receiving no feedback. The praise feedback led to slightly higher scores than no feedback, but in this study the difference was not statistically significant.
Why does the controlling element undercut the praise? Think back to the explanation of why praise works in the first place—it makes the student think, "I'm the kind of kid who enjoys puzzles and does them well." When "keep it up" is added, the student is less likely to make that attribution to himself or herself. The student is more likely to think, "I'm doing these puzzles because the teacher wants me to, not because I enjoy them."
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