STUDENT ABILITY AND EFFORT

RESEARCH FINDING:

Children's  understanding of the relationship between being smart 
and hard work changes as they grow.

COMMENT:

When  children start school,  they think that ability and  effort 
are  the same thing;  in other words,  they believe that if  they 
work  hard they will become smart.   Thus,  younger children  who 
fail  believe this is because they didn't try  hard  enough,  not 
because they have less ability.


Because teachers tend to reward effort in earlier  grades,  chil-
dren  frequently  concentrate on working hard rather than on  the 
quality of their work.   As a result,  they may not learn how  to 
judge how well they are performing.

In  later elementary grades,  students slowly learn that  ability 
and  effort  are not the same.   They come to believe that  lower 
ability  requires harder work to keep up and that  students  with 
higher  ability need not work so hard.   At this stage,  speed at 
completing  tasks replaces effort as the sign  of  ability;  high 
levels of effort may even carry the stigma of low ability.

Consequently, many secondary school students, despite their abil-
ity,  will  not expend the effort needed to achieve their  poten-
tial.   Underachievement can become a way of life.  Once students 
begin believing they have failed because they lack ability,  they 
tend to lose hope for future success.   They develop a pattern of 
academic hopelessness and stop trying.  They see academic obstac-
les as insurmountable and devote less effort to learning.

Teachers  who are alert to these beliefs in youngsters will  keep 
their  students  motivated and on task.   They will  also  slowly 
nudge  their students toward the realism of judging themselves by 
performance.   For example,  teachers will set high  expectations 
and  insist  that students put forth the effort required to  meet 
the  school's  academic standards.   They will make  sure  slower 
learners  are rewarded for their progress and abler students  are 
challenged according to their abilities.


Doyle,  W.  (l983).   "Academic Work."  Review of Educational Re-
search, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. l59-l99.

Harari,  O., and Covington, M. V. (l98l).  "Reactions to Achieve-
ment Behavior From a Teacher and Student Perspective:  A Develop-
mental  Analysis."  American Educational Research  Journal,  Vol. 
l8, No. 1, pp. l5-28.

Stipek,  D.  (l98l).   "Children's  Perceptions of Their Own  and 
Their  Classmates' Ability."  Journal of Educational  Psychology, 
Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 404-4l0.

Weiner,  B.  (l979).   "A Theory of Motivation for Some Classroom 
Experiences."  Journal of Educational Psychology,  Vol.  71,  pp. 
3-25.

Weinstein,  R., et al. (l982).  "Student Perceptions of Differen-
tial  Teacher  Treatment  in Open  and  Traditional  Classrooms."  
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 74, pp. 678-692.