Pros and Cons of Labeling Children Gifted and Talented

¶ … Labeling Children: Gifted and Talented

New research suggests that complimenting children for their intelligence and academic performance may lead them to believe that good test scores and high grades are more important than learning and mastering something new (Mueller pp). According to research published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, praising a child's scholastic aptitude is generally meant to boost the child's academic performance, however it actually leaves the child ill-prepared for coping with setbacks (Mueller pp).

Six studies of 412 fifth graders was conducted by psychologists Dr. Claudia M. Mueller and Dr. Carol S. Dweck of Columbia University (Mueller pp). The researchers compared the goals and achievement behaviors of children who had been praised for their intelligence with children who were praised for their effort and hard work under conditions of failure as well as success (Mueller pp).

The psychologists demonstrated, through their studies, that commending children for their intelligence after good performance might backfire by making the children highly performance-oriented, leading to extreme vulnerability to the effects of subsequent setbacks (Mueller pp). While children who were commended for their effort tended to concentrate on learning goals and strategies for achievement (Mueller pp).

Mueller and Dweck also observed that children who were praised for their ability when they were successful actually learned to believe that intelligence is a "fixed trait that cannot be developed or improved" (Mueller pp). Those children who were explicitly commended after their successes were the children who tended to blame poor performances on their own lack of intelligence, yet when children were praised for their hard work performed poorly, they simply blamed their lack of success on poor effort and showed a precise determination to learn new strategies that would enhance subsequent performances (Mueller pp).

According to Dweck, lead author of the study, some of society's basic beliefs concerning how to increase a child's self-esteem and achievement are misguided (Mueller pp). Dweck notes, "Praising children's intelligence, far from boosting their self-esteem, encourages them to embrace self-defeating behaviors, such as worrying about failure and avoiding risks" (Mueller pp). Yet, when children are taught the value of concentration, strategies, and hard work when faced with academic challenges, "this encourages them to sustain their motivation, performance, and self-esteem," says Dweck (Mueller pp).

The Mueller and Dweck studies revealed that children who are praised for their intelligence learn to value performance, while those who are praised for their effort and hard work learn to value learning opportunities (Mueller pp). The findings were virtually similar for boys and girls, as well as children from different ethnic groups in rural and urban communities (Mueller pp). Moreover, the differing effects that resulted from praise for effort and praise for ability were unrelated to children's ability, "for children with low test scores were equally likely to stress performance goals at the expense of mastery goals as children with high scores" (Mueller pp).

Mueller and Dweck believe that the results of their studies may demonstrate why bright young girls who do well in grade school often perform poorly in upper grades, noting that in their desire to boost a young girl's confidence and abilities, educators have praised them for their intelligence which, as these findings reveal, "could have an undesired impact on their subsequent motivation and performance" (Mueller pp).

The authors have concluded from their studies that labeling a child as gifted or talented may also have a negative impact on the child because such labeling may be the cause of a child becoming overly concerned with justifying the label and less concerned with meeting challenges that enhance his or her ability to learn and master skills (Mueller pp). The child may believe that academic setbacks indicate that he or she is undeserving of being labeled as gifted (Mueller pp).