Research Assignment: Praising Students I chose to do my research activity on the article titled Caution: Praise Can Be Dangerous by Carol S. Dweck. The main goal that Dweck wanted to achieve was to prove that praising your students on their intelligence can in fact affect their academic achievement in a bad way. 85 percent of parents thought they needed to praise their children’s intelligence in order to assure that they were smart (Dweck 4). It was thought that if you boost a student’s self esteem that it would help them academically, but in certain ways, this was wrong.The problems that the article dealt with were that if praise wasn’t handled properly, then “it can become a negative force, or a drug that rather than strengthening students, it makes them passive and dependent on the opinion of others†(Dweck, 4). If you use praise correctly, then it will help the students realize the value of effort, and become fulfilled with the accomplishments that they achieved on their own and want to succeed more. They also will have a better time dealing with any setbacks.
