All you parents out there struggling with the thought of encouraging your kids to get good marks, here's some relief for you! A new study has found that encouraging your kids to repeat words to themselves to emphasise effort over ability can help them improve and thus get better marks. The study was able to find that when kids engaged in self-talk, it helped improve their math performance based on effort and not ability.
“Parents and teachers are often advised to encourage children to repeat positive self-statements at stressful times, such as when they’re taking academic tests,” said study lead author Sander Thomaes, Professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “We discovered that children with low self-confidence can improve their performance through self-talk focused on effort, a self-regulation strategy that children can do by themselves every day,” Thomaes said.
Around 212 kids in grades 4 to 6 (ages 9 to 13 years) from schools in middle-class communities in the Netherlands were chosen for the study. The researchers said that they picked younger children because older kids already had prominent perceptions about their ability and this could hinder the result of the study. The researchers also chose maths as a subject because of its difficulty and perception based on one's ability.
For the study, the children were first asked to report what they believed about their ability to solve math problems. They were then asked to give a test in two parts. After completing the first half of the standardised test, they were randomly assigned three tasks - to silently participant in self-talk focused on effort (wanting to do their best), participate in self-talk focused on ability (already believe they know the best options) and to not opt for self-talk at all. After this, they were asked to complete the second half of the test.
The results were astounding. Children who focused on self-talk based on effort scored better marks as compared to children who focused on self-talk based on ability or children who did not opt for self-talk at all. And this was irrespective of their ability or competence to solve problems. “Our study found that the math performance of children with low self-confidence benefits when they tell themselves that they will make an effort,” said Eddie Brummelman, Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam.
“We did not find the same result among children with low self-confidence who spoke to themselves about ability. Self-talk about effort is the key,” he added. However, the researchers also noted that these efforts only work on younger kids as the older ones already have certain perceptions about themselves that are hard to change. Stay tuned for more updates.
