Killing Math Achievement with Kindness

From the Marshall Memo #450 

(Originally titled “It’s OK – You’re Just Not Good at Math”) 

In this review, Educational Leadership summarizes a report by Aneeta Rattan, Catherine Good, and Carol Dweck entitled, “It’s OK – Not Everyone Can Be Good At Math: Instructors with an Entity Theory Comfort (and Demotivate) Students” (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, April 2012). Key points: Teachers who believe math intelligence is fixed are quick to judge students based on a single assessment, and they are more likely to comfort students for their lack of ability and use “kind” strategies that are ineffective at motivating students to improve.

“Research Alert: ‘It’s OK – You’re Just Not Good at Math’” in “Double Take” in Educational Leadership, September 2012 (Vol. 70, #1, p. 8), http://www.ascd.org