Category: Social and Motivational Outcomes

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Achievement Kindergarten Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Positive effect of process praise in early years on later achievement through growth mindsets development

Praises that affirm children’s efforts may influence their beliefs about learning. But how does the praise children hear early in life relate to their academic achievement years later? An article recently published in Developmental Psychology explored the relationship between parents’ praise of children aged 1 to 3 years old, the children’s second-grade motivational framework and their fourth-grade academic achievement among 53 children and their caregivers from Chicago.

When the children in the study were 14, 26 and 38 months old, parents’ and children’s daily activities in home were videotaped. Parent praise was then classified into process praise (emphasising children’s effort, strategies and specific actions), person praise (indicating the child had a fixed quality) and other praise (praise that was not clearly person- or process-directed, such as ‘Good’). When the children were in second and third grade, their motivational framework was assessed by asking them about their beliefs in the stability of intelligence, their orientation towards learning goals and their attributions. Math achievement, reading comprehension and reading decoding were assessed in fourth grade.

Gunderson and colleagues found that:

  • Process praise accounted for 18% of parent praise across ages, person praise accounted for 16% and other praise accounted for 66%.
  • Process praise had a positive indirect effect on fourth-grade reading comprehension and math achievement, through its positive effects on children’s incremental mindsets.
  • In addition, further analyses showed that the effect was produced through children’s beliefs about whether traits were malleable or fixed, rather than their preference for challenging versus easy tasks in service of learning goals.

The authors pointed out that these results indicate that the impacts of children’s growth mindset may already exist by second grade, and suggested that intervention studies be conducted to guide parents on how to give process praise.

 

Source :Gunderson, E. A., Sorhagen, N. S., Gripshover, S. J., Dweck, C. S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2018). Parent praise to toddlers predicts fourth grade academic achievement via children’s incremental mindsets. Developmental Psychology, 54(3), 397–409. … Read the rest

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Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Praise to raise self-esteem?

An observational longitudinal study published in Child Development tests whether receiving overly positive, inflated praise from a parent eventually fosters low self-esteem and even narcissism, rather than raising it as might be expected.

The study involved 120 children recruited from schools in the Netherlands and their parents. Children were aged 7 to 11. Children completed questionnaires in school at four six-month intervals, and levels of narcissism and self-esteem were measured using the Childhood Narcissism scale and the Global Self-Worth Subscale of the Self-Perception Profile for Children.

Eddie Brummelman and colleagues found that:

  • Children with lower levels of self-esteem at the beginning of the study received more inflated praise from parents, which in turn led to lower self-esteem at the later test points.
  • Inflated praise also predicted higher narcissism over time, but only in children with high initial levels of self-esteem.
  • The authors suggested inflated praise might lead those with high self-esteem internalise a narcissistic self-view, by believing themselves are incredible; while those with low self-esteem would judge that these praises did not fit the current views of themselves.

The authors remarked that the findings did not encourage parents to stop praising their children. Instead, it suggested parents should be careful about whether they praised in an inflated way.

 

Source :Brummelman, E., Nelemans, S. A., Thomaes, S., & Castro, B. O. de. (2017). When Parents’ Praise Inflates, Children’s Self-Esteem Deflates. Child Development, 88(6), 1799–1809. … Read the rest

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Achievement Kindergarten Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

What do we know about well-being?

The Department for Education’s Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre has published a new review of evidence on well-being and learning. Their starting point was that, although previous literature suggests a link, less is known about how multiple dimensions of well-being (emotional, behavioural, social, school) predict later educational outcomes. The authors conducted a review of relevant literature, as well as using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Key findings included:

  • Children with higher levels of emotional, behavioural, social, and school well-being, on average, have higher levels of academic achievement and are more engaged in school.
  • As children move through the school system, emotional and behavioural well-being become more important in explaining school engagement, while demographic and other characteristics become less important.
  • The relationships between emotional, behavioural, social, and school well-being and later educational outcomes are generally similar for children and adolescents, regardless of their gender and parents’ educational level.

The authors concluded that the decline in school wellbeing from childhood to adolescence was worrisome, as the findings suggested that school engagement during the early teenage years could significantly predict the later GCSE achievement.

 

Source (Open Access) :Gutman, L. M., & Vorhaus, J. (2012). The impact of pupil behaviour and wellbeing on educational outcomes (research report def-rr253). London, England: The Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre. … Read the rest

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Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

Mental wellness in early childhood

Child Trends has released a new research brief on mental wellness in early childhood. Using research from various sources such as university publications, journal articles, and government websites, they identify five “things to know” to help parents and caregivers lay a solid foundation for healthy childhood development.

  1. Infants experience and perceive a range of emotions. Caregivers may underestimate the degree to which infants’ social-emotional development is affected by early experiences. Although infants as young as six months can “begin to sense and be affected by their parents’ moods,” fewer than 35% of caregivers believe that infants are capable of experiencing emotions in this way.
  2. Early positive interactions promote emotional wellness throughout the lifespan. Interactions between caregivers and infants are critically important, as “neural connections are formed through the interaction of genes and a baby’s environment and experiences,” especially through communication with caregivers.
  3. Having appropriate expectations of young children’s development is important. Emotional development is a critical component of brain development that is not always emphasised as much as cognitive, physical, or verbal development. Each person’s development is unique, but caregivers should understand general social-emotional milestones – such as copying caregivers’ actions – in order to keep expectations appropriate and monitor potential red flags.
  4. Parents and caregivers should be mindful of their own emotional well-being, seeking support if they need it. Caregivers who effectively treat their mental illness may lower the effects of the illness on their children.
  5. Young children are resilient and, if properly supported, can overcome potentially traumatic events. Young children may be able to overcome the effects of adverse events through consistent, predictable, supportive interactions.

These findings on mental wellness for infants and toddlers from birth through 3 years old were written for caregivers to help children to develop to their full potential.

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Source (Open Access) :Halle et al. (2015). 5 things to know about mental wellness in early childhood. Retrieved from https://www.childtrends.org/child-trends-5/5-things-to-know-about-mental-wellness-in-early-childhood/… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Two behaviours linked to dropout rates in high school

A study published in the Journal of School Health examines how two behaviours – aggression and poor study skills – may be a factor in why some pupils do not finish high school.

Pamela Orpinas and colleagues randomly selected 620 sixth-grade (Year 7) pupils from northeast Georgia schools. Teachers completed a behaviour rating scale for these pupils every year from grades six to twelve (Year 7 to Year 13). Based on teacher ratings, the pupils were categorised into low, medium and high aggression trajectories from middle to high school and into five study skills groups (low, average-low, decreasing, increasing and high).  Examples of behaviours considered to be aggressive were threatening to hurt, hitting, bullying and teasing others. Examples of study skills were doing extra credit work, being well organised, completing homework, working hard and reading assigned chapters. Participants in the study were classed as a dropout if they were not enrolled in school and had not obtained a high school diploma by the end of the spring term in grade 12 (Year 13).

It was found that:

  • Pupils who were identified in the high-aggression/low-study-skills group had a 50% dropout rate compared to pupils with low aggression and high study skills who had a dropout rate of less than 2%.
  • Most pupil in the high-aggression group were in the low-study-skills group.
  • All pupil in the high-study-skills group were in the low-aggression group.

The results highlight the importance of early interventions that combine academic enhancement and behavioural management for reducing school dropout rates.

 

Source : Orpinas, P., Raczynski, K., Hsieh, H.-L., Nahapetyan, L., & Horne, A. M. (2018). Longitudinal examination of aggression and study skills from middle to high school: implications for dropout prevention. Journal of School Health, 88(3), 246–252. … Read the rest

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Kindergarten Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

How ESSA supports social and emotional learning

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows US states to use federal funding to adopt research-proven programmes to improve pupil achievement. This includes social-emotional learning (SEL) programmes. To offer some guidance and inform decision makers, RAND has released a report, Social and emotional learning interventions under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reviews recent evidence on these programmes. The report discusses how ESSA supports SEL programmes and outlines the programmes that meet the ESSA evidence standards.

Specifically, authors found:

  • 60 SEL programmes that met strong, moderate, or promising evidence standards in grades K-12 (Years  1 to 13). Most were evaluated at the primary school level in urban communities with minority populations.
  • Interpersonal competencies, such as hostile attribution biases, prosocial behaviors, interpersonal communication, and social problem-solving skills, were most likely to be positively affected by these programmes.
  • Following that, intrapersonal competencies, such as attention, concentration, emotional regulation, and perseverance, were the second most common outcomes positively impacted by these programmes.

A second report describes these programmes and the research that supports them in detail.

 

Source (Open Access) : Grant, S., Hamilton, L., Wrabel, S., Gomez, C., Whitaker, A., Leschitz, J., … Ramos, A. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning Interventions Under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence Review. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.         … Read the rest