Pumped up kicks

Process Praise for kids

Her latest research is “Parent Praise,” and it’s a longitudinal study. In it, researchers observed, and coded, praise from parents with children 14 months old to 38 months old to see if it was more person-based (“you are really smart”) or process based (“you must have tried really hard”). When the kids were 7 and 8, they checked back to see how they felt about taking risks and whether qualities like intelligence were fixed or malleable.

The process kids won.

“The parents who gave more process-praise had children who believe their intelligence and social qualities could be developed and they were more eager for challenges,” Dr. Dweck told me.

In her previous research, she’s showed that praising children for their intelligence or abilities often undermines motivation and hurts performance. Kids who are told they are smart care more about performance goals and less about learning. Kids praised for their efforts believe that trying hard, not being smart, matters. These kids are “resilient” and take more risks.

No Digital Facelifts: Thinking the Unthinkable About Open Educational Experiences

a talk by Gardner Campbell, Baylor University & Jim Groom, University of Mary Washington

Open Educational Resources

The UnFacebooking world

The parts in black are the parts of the world that are on facebook, the rest, not so much. Source

never question authority

The Future of Power

Joesph Nye talks about it. 

Policies, Politics: Can Evidence Play a Role in the Fight against Poverty?

Interesting talk on international development, for those who are keen. Esther Duflo argues that, contra to the institutionalist view that we have to get politics right before development happens, that changing local policies can impact on politics and bring about development.