Teachers who lavish praise on students' intelligence could spoil their motivation to learn, an educational psychologist has found.
The warning from Dr Lam Shui-fong, of the University of Hong Kong, comes as she finalises a project - Enhancement of Learning Motivation in Schools (Elms) - started in May last year.
She is now analysing data on levels of Secondary One children's desire to learn, collected in five schools during the past year. During the project, she also collected samples of comments made by teachers on students.
Some of the comments, she has found, carried basic assumptions about someone's innate ability or personality traits which could be damaging to his or her future growth. She saw problems even in such positive, commonly used phrases as 'exceptionally smart'. This could have the same effect as other problematic comments such as 'of mediocre talent', 'used to being lazy', or 'weak capacity for learning', she said. 'Teachers should be alert to the comments they use, and focus on areas that can be changed, such as personal attitudes or behaviour, rather than ability or personality traits,' she said. Pupils who received a high or low ability rating could be less persistent in their learning, overlooking the importance of working hard, she said. 'Someone who is always told he is smart might think he has reached the limit of his potential when he faces setbacks or failure. In fact, a person's ability and intelligence can be developed.'
Intrinsic motivation, such as thinking that one can achieve results through hard work and perseverance, is vital to promote an attitude of lifelong learning, she said. 'I pointed out the problem with some of the teachers' comments to the schools and they all said they would correct them,' Dr Lam said.
Teachers should not emphasise labels such as 'slow-learners' or 'gifted children'. Integrating these children into mainstream schools was important so they can interact with their peers, she said.
