What is Known About Praise?
“That’s
a good answer.”
“You
did really well.”
“Good,
good.”
“Oh,
that’s excellent.”
“Fine,
fine.”
It
is used in massive amounts. It is
ineffective in helping children learn.
It can hook students to extrinsic rewards, and can weaken their
self-motivation. Praise undermines
student confidence in their answers. It
is used to control low-achieving students, and contributes to unequal treatment
of students. It is the verbal equivalent
of candy, popped into children’s minds for no apparent reason. Hard to believe? The sad part is…it’s true.
Students
used to high amounts of praise:
·
Tend
not to engage in higher level reasoning because they are used to a quick
payoff.
·
Do
more eye-checking with teachers, state responses in doubtful, inflected tones,
and do not persist at tasks.
·
Are
less confident when someone disagrees with them.
·
Do
not share answers with other students because they are “hoarding” the answers
so that they can get praised.
Teachers
praise their top students differently than they do their low students, praising
low students more often than high students.
Teacher praise of low students is often non-pertinent, delivered with no
real purpose. This teacher behavior has
been shown to have a negative impact on student achievement.
How to Praise Effectively.
Praise
for simple tasks or for drills, or for social behavior, can be effective, but
for more in-depth learning, praise is likely to be ineffective. In responding to a student, focus on the
material being covered or on other students—or just look at the student and
wait for further elaboration or for other students to chime in. Ask another question, or ask another student
if they can add anything to the answer.
Use a supportive tone and attitude when doing this.
If
compelled to praise use comments such as “That’s getting us someplace,” or
“That gives some depth to our discussion.”
Use “I don’t understand what you’re getting at,” or “What facts do you
have that backs you up?” to guide students who are completely off base. Eventually students will realize that they
must have reasons to support their opinions, and their incorrectness will be
obvious to them. That internal judgment
of correctness, of thinking about what you’re doing, is an important aspect of
being a critical thinker.
You
should not use praise to encourage reluctant students to get involved in
discussions. Instead, while you are
circulating around the room, engage the student privately and casually. Get the student accustomed to talking, to
making comments, and sharing opinions.
Choose topics of interest, and try to engage them in a non-threatening
way.
Encourage
students to set their own goals, goals which are difficult but achievable. Self-set goals help students accomplish more
and build more self-motivation than when they have externally imposed goals
pressed upon them.
Make
tape recordings of your lessons—count the number of verbal rewards you hand
out. Do words like “good” and “fine” and
“excellent” frequently pop up? Do you
give more praise to low-achieving students?
Reflect on what’s happening, then pick one behavior you’d like to
change, and focus on that for the next unit or set of lessons. If you decide you have too much praise, slow
down the pace of instruction—heavy praise could simply be a part of your
speech, a habit you may need to break.
The
research does not say never, ever praise—but it does say do not praise
habitually, heavily, or inaccurately.
When in doubt, save your praise for a colleague—research has shown no
ill effects of praise on teachers!